126 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1904. 



that the present lull is only temporary and that business will 

 pick up rapidly after New Year's. Others suggest that during 

 the year in which a presidential election is pending, general 

 business conditions are not likely to be so good, and that this 

 will affect the rubber trade. 



Speaking of profits, one manufacturer's agent, in analyzing the 

 local situation, said conditions were peculiar in the Chicago 

 field. Competition in the rubber trade in Chicago is keener 

 than in any other part of the United States. It is far more so 

 than in New York, for here western as well as eastern manufac- 

 turers enter into competition with the local companies. Even 

 a California manufacturer has a selling agency here. This gen- 

 tleman said that there were four times as many rubber manu- 

 facturers' agents in Chicago as in New York. Practically three 

 blocks in Lake street are given over to rubber goods branch 

 houses and manufacturers' agents for mechanical goods, and 

 all of these houses are bent upon making the best possible 

 showing in the volume of business, even if sometimes too little 

 regard is given to profits. 



Another thing, according to one member of the trade, is the 

 fact that there is still a tendency on the part of western con- 

 sumers of rubber goods to consider price before quality. This 

 is especially true, this dealer said, among the new big industrial 

 corporations, whose purchasing agents have not all come to 

 realize that the better grades of rubber goods are often cheaper 

 in the end. In order to make a good showing on the year's 

 balance sheet, they keep down expenses at the time of purchase 

 and let the future take care of itself. 



Among those expressing a favorable opinion of the present 

 and future of the local rubber trade is Mr. George Hawkinson, 

 manager of the rubber department of George B. Carpenter & 

 Co., general western agents for the Peerless Rubber Manufac- 

 turing Co. (New York). This gentleman, by the way, feels that 

 the western consumer of mechanical rubber goods as a rule ap- 

 preciates much better than in the past the advantage of buying 

 the better grades. 



" We have been working along this line for some time," said 

 he. " Consumers are beginning to buy goods now which a year 

 or two ago they would not even look at, considering them too 

 high priced. Requests for bids and all specifications sent to us 

 call for a high grade of goods. Our trade was far above the 

 ordinary year, though it eased off during the last few months, 

 but we always have a lull at the end of the year. Our long suit 

 is steam packing, belting, and hose, and the indications are that 

 there will be a much more active belting market in the coming 

 year, with a tendency toward higher and firmer prices. I ex- 

 pect to see the whole mechanical rubber goods market pick up 

 at the first of the year and go right along." 



GOOD WORDS FOR THE BICYCLE. 



IF there be any who think that the days of bicycling are 

 over, they might form a new opinion after reading a collec- 

 tion of views on the subject just made public by Colonel Albert 

 A. Pope, the veteran manufacturer. For many years it has been 

 the habit of Colonel Pope to plentifully supply editorial desks 

 with a convenient calendar, with one leaf for each day, having 

 on each leaf an expression on the merits of bicycling. His 

 1904 calendar, with 366 leaves, contains extracts from that 

 number of letters, all written within six months past, and each 

 containing a hearty word of praise for the bicycle as pleasant, 

 wholesome, and valuable. And the writers form a list of men 

 and women representative of all classes of intelligent people, 

 including business men of wide eminence, members of all the 

 learned professions, college presidents, editors, and judges. 



The first letter is from the president of Harvard University, 

 who, with Mrs. Eliot, finds bicycling agreeable and wholesome. 

 The next are from the French ambassador at Washington, 

 a noted Boston lawyer, a Methodist bishop, a professor of 

 surgery, an army general, a naval commander, a United States 

 judge, and so on — all commending the bicycle, and expressing 

 pleasure in its use. Editor Dana, of the New York Sun, writes : 

 " In country homes the bicycle is now a necessity ; and what- 

 ever will help make a good wheel for little money is to be en- 

 couraged." 



These letters are interesting at least in showing that some of 

 the earlier devotees of the wheel have not lost their enthusi- 

 asm, and Colonel Pope may be counted upon — now that he is 

 active in business again — to see to it that enough of the rising 

 generation become bicyclists to fill the vacancies which death 

 must soon cause in the " old guard." Whether bicycling can 

 again be made as popular as it was ten years ago, however, is 

 another matter, although Colonel Pope is very hopeful on this 

 point. The rubber tire trade, it may be noted, do nor share 

 the Colonel's enthusiasm, though convinced that a certain de- 

 mand will always exist for bicycle tires, and under conditions 

 perhaps more favorable, from the standpoint of tire profits, 

 than in some former years. 



In an interview with one of the longest established and most 

 widely known bicycle agents in the trade, near the end of De- 

 cember, The India Rubber World was informed that sales- 

 men had gone out earlier than usual, and that the orders ob- 

 tained to date had been larger than even during the palmy 

 days of the bicycle. The promise for the year he regarded as 

 most promising. There had been an advance on all grades of 

 wheels, and no business was being done except at a profit. He 

 said that the American Bicycle Co. had sold a great many 

 more wheels during its career than was generally supposed, 

 since many people took it for granted, because the company 

 was in financial straits, that it was doing no business. There 

 had been a demand for bicycles all the time, but not all the 

 business had been profitable. He felt that the demand could 

 be and would be increased, and with the business on a new 

 basis, a more profitable era for the bicycle manufacturers had 

 set in. ^^^^^_^^__^ 



AMERICAN RUBBER GOODS EXPORTS. 



OFFICIAL statement of values of exports of manufactures 

 of India-rubber and Gutta-percha, for the month of Oc- 

 tober, 1903, and for the first ten months of the calendar year, 

 for five years : 



(<i) Included in " All Other " prior to July I, 1899. 



The number of pairs of rubber footwear exported during the 

 first ten months of three years past has been; 1,799,009 in 

 1901 ; 1,922,744 in 1902 ; and 1,704,522 in 1903. 



Later returns, bringing the official record down to Novem- 

 ber 1, (903, bring the total value of exports for eleven months 

 to $3,944,375. The rate of footwear exports does not show any 

 improvement. 



