November i, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



63 



is no stronger than its weakest link, so is an automobile no 

 stronger than its weakest point. This point, owing to the too 

 frequent desire on the part of the maker to economize, is often 

 the tire. Bv paying an utter disregard to the quality of the 

 tire with which he equips his machine the automobile maker 

 has done not a little to injure his own business. It is a well 

 known fact that the tendency of cheap tires to wear out and 

 puncture frequently has been the cause of many people becom- 

 ing disgusted with the automobile. It was so with the bicycle, 

 and tire makers have been going through the same experience 

 they had with the cheap bicycle tire. The new agreement 

 seems to me to be the best thing for all parties concerned that 

 could have been devised. Without the maker's guarantee the 

 buyer will not purchase tires, so it is an assured fact that the 

 agreement will accomplish the purpose for which it was made. 

 While automobile makers have been so busy devising new 

 things to increase the speed and efficiency of their machines, 

 the buyer, the man who puts up his hard cash, has been study- 

 ing some on the question of tires, and I make no wrong asser- 

 tion when I say that the buyer is perfectly satisfied with the 

 agreement. He realizes that it means better service for him, 

 and he is content. I can see no reason at all why the agree- 

 ment will not accomplish its purpose to the satisfaction of not 

 only the tire maker but the manufacturer of automobiles and 

 the users of them as well." 



* + • 



Mr. Howard Hoskin, bookkeeper for the Goodyear Tire 

 and Rubber Co., was married to Miss Ella B. Hershey, daughter 

 of Mr. E. A. Hershey, of Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday even- 

 ing, September 30. The wedding was solemnized by Dr. 

 Washington Gladden of Columbus. They will make their 

 home in Akron. 



THE PARA RUBBER PLANTATION CO. 



A MEETING for the reorganization of the Para Rubber 

 Plantation Co. was held in Chicago on October 6, at 

 which it was decided to change the name to the International 

 Rubber and Trading Co., and to increase the capital stock to 

 $10000,000, divided equally between preferred and common 

 shares. The capital formerly was $5,000,000, all common stock. 

 Milton Doud was elected secretary and treasurer, in place of 

 F. M. Crawford, who formerly held these offices. There are 

 now two vacancies in the directory, which President Cudahy 

 says he will try to have filled by well known and substantial 

 business men. The offices of the company will continue at No. 

 52 Broadway. New York, which was the headquarters of the 

 Para Rubber Plantation Co. 



Mr. John Cudahy, president of the company, stated to The 

 India Rubber World correspondent that the character of the 

 company's properties was such as to warrant him in claiming 

 that the company would be a financial success. He said that 

 heretofore much advertising matter had been circulated which 

 he did not approve of and which was misleading. He said that 

 this had been stopped, and that it had led to the present reor- 

 ganization steps. Mr. Cudahy stated that he proposed to take 

 hold of the affairs of the International Rubber and Trading Co. 

 personally and manage them in a way that would develop the 

 properties and be satisfactory to the most exacting shareholder. 

 He said that the man chosen for the post of secretary is a trans- 

 portation man. 



Early in the month parties interested in the rubber industry 

 in New York and its vicinity received letters dated October 7 

 and signed by Carl A. G. Adae, " investment broker," No. 31 

 Barclay street, New York, offering 500 shares of the Para Rub- 



ber Plantation Co. at $7.35. the par value being $10. Mr. Adae 

 was found to have desk room on an upper floor at the address 

 mentioned, with a firm dealing in florists' supplies. His name 

 did not appear on any sign and he was found only after con- 

 siderable effort. He stated that the stock he had to offer was 

 held by a young man in the employ of the Para Rubber Plan- 

 tation Co., and at present on their properties on the river Casi- 

 quiare. Mr. Adae stated further that the company had paid 

 two 6 per cent, dividends within a year from the sale of $300,- 

 000 worth of rubber in New York. As for transportation, he 

 stated that at certain seasons the Casiquiare flowed toward the 

 Orinoco, which furnished an outlet to the seaboard, and that at 

 certain other seasons it flowed toward the Negro, when that 

 stream was used for transportation. When Mr. Adae was call- 

 ed upon, however, he said that it had been decided to withdraw 

 all the stocks from sale, pending a reorganization of the com- 

 pany " on a larger scale." 



THE OBITUARY RECORD. 



HENRY STEERS, of New York, who was accidentally 

 drowned on September 29 while fishing nearhis summer 

 home in Massachusetts, was a director in the Rubber Goods 

 Manufacturing Co. — which position he had held from the first 

 organization of that company — and in a number of financial in- 

 stitutions. He was born in New York. September 14, 1832, and 

 grew up in the shipbuilding business with his uncle, George 

 Steers (who designed and built the famous schooner yacht 

 America), to which business he succeeded and expanded to very 

 large proportions, retiring in 1875. Mr. Steers was the last sur- 

 vivor of the crew which sailed the America in English waters 

 in 1851, bringing to the United States the Cup which British 

 yachtsmen ever since have been trying to regain. 



James McCord, one of the best known merchants in the 

 West, and who died at his home in St. Joseph, Missouri, on 

 September 25, was born in Virginia. January 7, 1826. At an 

 early age he removed to Missouri, where he began a business 

 association with the late Abram Nave, which lasted 52 years 

 and proved exceptionally successful. McCord at the time of 

 his death was interested in a number of wholesale houses, in- 

 cluding the McCord Rubber Co., incorporated in 1895, to con- 

 tinue the boot and shoe trade of the St. Joseph branch of E. B. 

 Preston & Co. (Chicago), after the death of Mr. Preston in the 

 same year. 



Charles Runvan died at his residence in New York on Oc- 

 tober 13, in his sixty sixth year. His business career began about 

 forty-five years ago, in the employment of the Union India Rub- 

 ber Co. (New York,) then one of the most important rubber 

 manufacturing concerns in the country, and later he rilled for 

 a while the office of secretary and treasurer of that corporation. 

 He next became interested in the coal business, and was succes- 

 sively secretary and treasurer of the Superior Mountain Coal 

 Co., president of the Hoboken Coal Co., and president of the 

 Communipaw Coal Co. The latter position he held at his death. 



Marshall Field, the Chicago merchant prince, after an ex- 

 haustive series of tests, has become a firm believer in the value 

 of the rubber horseshoe. The horses employed in his busi- 

 ness, since being shod with rubber, give six years of service, 

 instead of three years as formerly. And that the horses them- 

 selves approve is evidenced by the fact that they refuse a hard 

 pavement every time unless they have on rubber shoes — that 

 is, of course, once they have acquired the " pad habit." The 

 city of Chicago, by the way, with its enormous use of horses, 

 has become one of the best markets in the world for rubber 

 horseshoe pads. 



