April 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



333 



plant. The lease runs for a term at an aggregate rental of $90,000. 

 The Beacon Falls company at present is located in quarters at 

 307 West Monroe street, in the heart of the wholesale rubber 

 goods district. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN RHODE ISLAND. 



By a Resident Corresfondent. 

 r" EBRU.\RY and March brought a decided improvement to 

 •^ the rubber trade in all parts of Rhode Island. Increased 

 orders were so much in evidence that the National India Rubber 

 Co. at Bristol announced a decided enlargement of output during 

 the latter part of last month, and the Woonsocket Rubber Co. 

 rushed its annual stock-taking at the Alice and Millville mills 

 for the purpose of getting it over as quickly as possible. 



At the .\lice mill of the Woonsocket concern the last day of 

 making before starting the work of going over the stock was on 

 March 27. Operations will be resumed on April 4. This was 

 really devoting only five days to an undertaking that usually takes 

 a full week. At the Millville mill the time was even shorter, 

 from March 28 to April 3. Full forces will be taken on at each 

 plant at the reopenings. Fifty-si.x hours a week in the Woon- 

 socket plant and fifty-four at that in ^Millville are the schedules, 

 the full legal limits in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. 



The hrst real rush of the season began at the plant of the Na- 

 tional India Rubber Co., Bristol, March 6. This resulted in the 

 re-employment of nearly 200 hands who were thrown out of 

 work when three departments were closed and moved to Cleve- 

 land, Ohio. 



The orders were for footwear, principally arctics and tennis 

 shoes. An increase in output from 23,000 pairs of footwear daily 

 to between 26,000 and 27,000 has been made since that time. 

 Le Baron C. Colt, agent for the company, stated that he expected 

 a continuance of the good business at tlie time, and his expecta- 

 tions have been fulfilled thus far. 



Business in the wire insulation department of this plant is so 

 brisk that it is being kept open up to 10 or 12 o'clock every 

 week night. 



* * * 



It required seventy-eight freight cars to move the machinery 

 of the closed departments at the National India Rubber Co.'s 

 plant, Bristol, to Cleveland, Ohio. 



* * * 



The Roger Williams Printing Co. was incorporated recently 

 at tlie State House, Providence, Rhode Island, for the purpose 

 of engaging in that city in the manufacture, printing and dealing 

 in textile and rubber goods and supplies. The incorporators were 

 Alfred G. Chaffee, E. G. Luther and John A. Tillinghast. Tlie 

 capital stock is $5,000. 



* * * 



One result of the success of Colonel Samuel P. Colt in regain- 

 ing the management of the Industrial Trust Co., Providence, 

 recently has been the closing of the Mechanics' Savings Bank, an 

 old institution which has been located not far from the Industrial 

 Trust headquarters on Weybosset street, but which has been a 

 subsidiary of the big concern for years. The business of the 

 branch is to be carried on in the rooms of the Trust company. 



* * * 



The Bourn Rubber Co. and the Cooper Hose Jlender Co., 

 Providence, are among several hundred business concerns in this 

 city which have petitioned the Special City Council Committee 

 on Lighting Franchises to give the Connecticut River Power 

 Transmission Co. permission to enter this city. The franchise 

 of the Narragansett Electric Lighting Co., of which Arthur L. 

 Kelley is president and Colonel Samuel P. Colt a director, ex- 

 pires this year, and an effort is being made to prevent it from 

 again securing exclusive rights. 



The plan of reorganization of the Consumers' Rubber Co., 

 proposed by the receiver and a committee of stockholders as a 

 result of the financial difficulties which the concern found itself 

 in shortly before Christmas, was discussed at a meeting held 

 March 27. 



Since the beginning of the receivership the plant has been in 

 operation, but Terence McCarty, general manager, has been made 

 defendant in a half dozen law suits, and banks have been filing 

 suits against each other over the payment of notes. The last suit 

 filed in the Superior Court was that of Tobias Burke, claiming 

 $7,500 damages on a $5,000 note, made December 26, 1911. A 

 writ of attachment was filed so as to cover the real and personal 

 property of the company. 



If the reorganization plan is accepted, the concern will be sold 

 to a company wdiich will issue certificates of indebtedness which 

 it will be compelled to retire before paying dividends on its own 

 stock. This will not, it is expected, settle all of the court litiga- 

 tion, however, unless an agreement is reached. 



* =t! * 



Several employes and officials of Bristol's rubber concerns are 

 active in an Improvement Association, formed on March 5, for 

 the purpose of booming the town. 



* * * 



A wind storm recently took off a portion of the roof of the 

 Colt High School, presented to the town of Bristol by Colonel 

 Samuel P. Colt. The occurrence caused general amazement, as 

 the building is a palatial structure, in the construction of which 



no expense was spared. 



* * * 



James Scott, for many years a teamster and later a clerk for 

 the National India Rubber Co., Bristol. Rhode Island, died at 

 midnight, March 8, at his home, corner of Hope and Franklin 

 streets, in that town. He was 56 years old. Two daughters and 

 two sons survive. The funeral was held Monday, March 11, at 

 St. Marv's Church. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



(By a Resident Correspondent.) 

 r* VERYTHING seems to be shaping up most favorably for 

 *— ' California this year. During the month of February 

 there w-as an almost total lack of rain, and the future began to 

 look dubious. But just before the grass and grain had begun to 

 suffer from the long-continued drought, a storm broke over the 

 entire State of California, and since then, during most of March 

 there have been continued rains, so that instead of a dry year 

 this State will now enjoy one of the most productive summers of 

 its whole history. In fact, conditions were never more favorable 

 for banner crops than they are at this time, and it is more than 

 probable that an era of unusual prosperity is at hand. Unques- 

 tionably the rubber industry will receive its fair share' of the 

 benefits, and the rubber rnerchants are consequently in a very 

 optimistic frame of mind. 



» * * 



R. H. Pease, president of the Goodyear Rubber Co., reports 

 that business is steadily forging ahead, and that each week shows 

 an increase in business over the same period last year. "The 

 fine rains which we have had since the first of this month," he 

 said, "are very encouraging, and our customers naturally used 

 up their stocks of boots, shoes and rubber clothing, so that they 

 have been reordering liberally. The snow in the mountains will 

 have another beneficial effect by furnishing water later on in 

 the summer for hydraulic mining and irrigation, which means 

 prosperity to the State and business for rubber merchants." 

 * * * 



The Western Belting and Hose Co., 518 Mission street, has 

 opened a verj- attractive branch store in Los Angeles. The new 



