THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Dfxember 1, 1919. 



Los Angeles Challenges Akron. 



Hv I'rcdc 



WILL the axis of ilie rubber manufacUiriiig industry one 

 day be shifted from Akron to Los Angeles? That is 

 what Pacific Coast business men predict and the Good- 

 year Tire & Rubber Co.'s $20,000,000 factory rapidly moving 

 toward completion furnishes a basis for their optimism. They 

 are conl'ident that other rubber companies will be prompt in fol- 

 lowing and that soon rubber, factories will be as common as 

 the citrus groves and vineyards of Los Angeles. They are 

 already mentally arranging locations for up-to-date plants that 

 will turn out rubber footwear, clothing, insulated wires and 

 cables, mechanical rubber goods, hard rubber, in fact all of the 

 varied lines of the gum elastic product. 



First among the advantages of Los .Angeles is the climate 

 which enables a factory manager to keep his plant going all the 

 year around without the incidental troubles of heating to be 

 considered. Where an eastern plant would, perhaps, be ham- 

 pered by storms and inclement weather,, a plant in southern 

 California could run all the year around, a most important con- 

 sideration as the overhead item of heating is reduced to a 

 minimum. 



The local market of southern California should not be over- 

 looked as Los .A.ngeles alone has a large number of stores, all 

 of which handle rubber goods of every kind and description. 

 There are eight dental supply houses, ten dental laboratories, 

 550 dentists, fourteen wholesale druggists and 300 retail drug- 

 gists, all of which deal extensively in rubber goods. This does 

 not include the populous and rapidly growing beach cities, such 

 as Long Beach, Santa Monica and aristocratic Pasadena. There 

 are at least 100,000 visitors every season to Los Angeles, includ- 

 ing wealthy invalids from all over the world. The lighting and 

 power companies adjacent to Los Angeles use thousands of 

 miles of insulated wire which a local company could supply. 

 while the housing problems for employes can be solved much 

 easier than in any of the more populous eastern centers. Aside 

 from local enthusiasm, there are sound reasons back of the 

 Goodyear company's move, which apply equally to other great 

 industrial enterprises, and particularly those making rubber 

 goods. Some of these may well be presented for the consider- 

 ation of other manufacturing concerns, which perhaps too long 

 have been anchored in the more populous centers of the East. 



In the first place, the population of the Pacific Coast is grow- 

 ing more rapidly than any other portion of the United States, 

 and with it the rubber trade. Only two states in the Union 

 exceed California in the number of automobiles and trucks used. 

 These are Ohio with 417,400 automobiles registered in 1918, and 

 Illinois with 389,135, while California is a good third with 351, 

 863. and the first two stales mentioned have double the popula- 

 tion of California. Even New York has only 253,588 machines 



and Peinisylvania, 370,110. So the use of automobiles in Cali- 

 fornia, and especially around Los Angeles, creates a large de- 

 mand for tires. 



Regarding the advantages of Los Angeles itself, there is an 

 a1)undance of good factory sites in almost any direction from its 

 center, probably as good as that selected by the Goodyear com- 

 pany. The question of fuel is easily disposed of, as the city is 



View of x Portion of the Work Being Do: 

 Gooi)VF.\R Tire & Ri'bber Co.. of C.\i-iKot 



V THE Pl.^n 

 M Los A> 



in the midst of an oil district, one of the b'ggest storage stations 

 of the Standard Oil Co. being located but a few miles from the 

 city limits on the coast, to which the oil is piped from the 

 various wells by a pipe line. Efiforts are now being made by 

 the Standard and Union Oil companies to increase their 

 product, drilling for new wells going on constantly. There are 

 a number of oil wells in Los Angeles itself, only a short distance 

 from the postoffice. 



A large part of the crude rubber used in the United States 

 now comes directly from the Far East through Pacific ports, to 

 be transported to the rubber centers of the East. This extra 

 haul can be avoided if the rubber is sent to factories located in 

 Los Angeles. Moreover, the line from the Far East by way of 

 Los Angeles over the southern roads is better than the route by 

 way of Seattle and the railroads from Seattle to ."Xkron, where 

 in winter-time snow, ice and congestion seriously interfere 

 with transportation. Thus, a continued flow of Iraffic may be 



HE GooDVE.^R Tire & Rubber Co.'s Office Force .\t Los .\ngeles, November 



