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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1904. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN AKRON. 



BY A RESIDENT CORRESPONDENT. 



TO the Editor of The India Rubber World : Accord- 

 ing to the statement of prominent rubber manufac- 

 turers in this city, the declining activity which has been notice- 

 able for the past month or so in many other lines of trade has 

 not materially affected the rubber branch. It will be remem- 

 bered that the rubber manufacturers of Akron did not have a 

 slack season the past summer, and the present comparative 

 dullness makes up for the time which should have been slack 

 and was not, and gives the manufacturers a chance to over- 

 haul machinery. The rubber factories have enjoyed during 1903 

 the best trade in many years, and they do not object to being 

 less busy just now. They do not believe that the period of 

 quiet will continue beyond the stocktaking at the end of the 

 year, and al! are optimistic over the prospects for the season of 

 1904. Advance orders for tires have been received in such 

 quantities that there is every reason to believe that next 

 year will be a good one, and in other lines the rubber man- 

 ufacturers here are confident in regard to the trade of 1904. 



* * * 

 Attention again has been called to the " blacklisting " case 

 of Peter Kiefer, who sued the Diamond Rubber Co. for $1,- 

 995, for the alleged act of the defendant in placing his and 

 other names upon a blacklist, it being further alleged that this 

 was done because they were members of a labor union. The 

 Diamond Rubber Co. have filed another answer to the suit, 

 in which they deny all the allegations of the complaint, except the 

 ones which allege that the company are engaged in the manu- 

 facture of rubber goods, and that there are other companies of the 

 same kind in Akron. They also acknowledge that the plaintiff 

 was at one time an employe" of the company, but is not now. 

 As was mentioned in The India Rubber World, the com- 

 pany recently filed a demurrer to the suit, in which the com- 

 pany sought to have the evidence of the plaintiff thrown out 

 and the case dismissed on the grounds that an employer should 

 not be required to give a reason for discharging an employe, 

 basing their contention upon a decision in the supreme court 

 of this state in the case of Schaeffer v. the New York, Chicago 

 and St. Louis Railroad Co. Judge A. R. Webber, before whom 

 the demurrer was tried, conceded the right of the company 

 to discharge employes without giving a reason therefor, but 

 held that " employes have a right to organize for their mutual 

 benefit," and therefore refused to prevent Kiefer from submit- 

 ting his evidence in the case. The filing of the present an- 

 swer was simply a customary legal procedure which has little 

 or no bearing on the case. 



» » * 



Judge Kohler, sitting in the court of common pleas at Ak- 

 ron, December n, overruled the motion for a new trial in the 

 action commenced by Addison McClurg against the Diamond 

 Rubber Co., and set aside the decision of the jury which had 

 awarded McClurg $3000 damages. McClurg is suing the com- 

 pany for $20,000 damages for injuries alleged to have been sus- 

 tained in the plant of the defendant company. The jury award- 

 ed him $3000, but Judge Kohler dismissed the verdict, stating 

 that it was too small. In passing upon the motion he said: 

 " To a young man of good habits, between the age of 21 and 

 25 years $3000 is no just compensation for the loss of a right 

 hand. If the jury had awarded the plaintiff $10,000 I would 

 not have interfered with the verdict. If the jury found that 

 the plaintiffs were negligent, and I suppose that they did or 

 they would not have returned a verdict for the plantiffs, they 

 should have done the young man justice, and returned a ver- 



dict that would have compensated him for the loss of his 

 hand." 



* * * 



After an effort covering two years Colonel George T. Per- 

 kins, president of The B. F. Goodrich Co., has at last seen the 

 consummation of his dearest wish. The city council has ac- 

 cepted a beautiful park which Colonel Perkins has been trying 

 to present to the city for two years. During this time the prop- 

 osition has twice been voted upon, adversely, but Colonel Per- 

 kins felt that eventually the Akron people would see the advan- 

 tage of owning such a beautiful park, and that he was right is 

 evidenced by the fact that favorable action looking toward the 

 acquisition of the property has been taken"! It consists of 76 

 acres, and is located on Perkins Hill southeast of the city. Just 

 west of the park is the home of the late John Brown, the famous 

 abolitionist, now used as a club house by the Portage Golf Club. 

 Colonel Perkins's gift carries with it a stipulation for a macad- 

 amized road to cost $20,000, and this was the stumbling block 

 until now. Near the park are the beautiful homes of Mr. 

 Bertram G. Work, vice president and general manager of the 

 Goodrich company, Mr. R. P. Marvin, secretary of the company 

 and Mr. C. B. Raymond, manager of the Akron plant of the 

 American Hard Rubber Co. 



* » » 



Mr. H. B. Camp, president of the Campand Faultless rubber 

 companies, recently became interested in coal mining, and with 

 other local capitalists purchased a large tract of coal lands in 

 Perry county, in southern Ohio. Preparations were made to 

 open a large mine, but when the railway which carries coal out 

 of that district was asked to run a switch to the mine, it was 

 found that the owners of the railway were in interest with the 

 Continental Coal Co., owners of the other mines in that district, 

 and the extension was refused. Mr. Camp and his associates 

 thereupon quietly secured right of way for a steam railroad from 

 Logan to McConnelsville.and have obtained a charter from the 

 state for the Indian Run Railway Co., and it is proposed to 

 build a road to give an outlet for the new coal mine. The in- 

 corporators of the railway company are H. B. Camp, his son L. 

 W. Camp, F. M. Atterholt, G. P. Wise, and H. E. Andress, all 

 of Akron. Once before Mr. Camp had trouble with a railroad 

 company over rates and built the Ashland and Wooster railway, 

 of which he was president, general manager, and superintend- 

 ent. The road was operated at a profit for several years and 



then sold. 



* * ♦ 



The manufacture of rubber bowling balls promises to become 

 an important feature of the hard rubber industry. The India 

 Rubber World has already reported the work done in this 

 direction by Joseph Dangel, superintendent of the Akron plant 

 of the American Hard Rubber Co. When he first announced 

 that he could turn out a ball which would be better than the 

 lignum vitae balls in general use, bowlers were disposed to 

 scoff, claiming that the balls would rebound when they struck 

 the pins, thus making it impossible to do the execution of a 

 lignum vitae ball. But being an enthusiastic bowler, as well as 

 a practical rubber man, Mr. Dangel combined the knowledge 

 he had gained in both pursuits in the manufacture of a rubber 

 ball, and the results have justified his fondest hopes. Orders 

 are now being received in good volume. Balls have come 

 through the hard usage of two seasons with hardly a scratch, 

 and apparently are as good today as when first turned out. 

 The hard rubber ball does not shrink, and is guaranteed not to 

 crack, and these features are the ones which cause the bowler 

 a lot of trouble. A ball of wood which weighs 19 pounds when 

 purchased will, before the end of the season, lose 4 or $ pounds. 



