1920.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



409 



CENTRALIZATION IN EASTERN STATES. 



Of more interest, however, is the industrial development of 

 the industry in such states as New Jersey, New York, Massa- 

 chusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The strength of the 

 rubber industry of the first two states named is now concen- 

 trated upon an ever-widening area around the cities of Trenton 

 and New York, with New York and its economic dependencies 

 gaining an increasing influence upon the industry. In watching 

 the development of the rubber industry in that particular field 

 it is necessary to view the whole industrial district comprising 

 the city of New York proper, Jersey City and Long Island as an 

 economic entity which it really represents. The great port of 

 New York divided between the two states of New Y'ork and 

 New Jersey binds the district and makes it practically indivisible 

 for all industrial purposes. Labor floats easily over it and may 

 be drawn from its outskirts without necessitating even the re- 

 location of its homes. The supply of raw materials, the dis- 

 tributing facilities of the whole district, its resources of in- 

 dustrial energy are all the same. It will take many years be- 

 fore the economic possibilities of this vast district are exhausted 

 and before the rubber industry will be forced to vacate. 



But while the whole district of New York has proven of 

 exceptional strength, its subdivisions are showing considerable 

 differences as to their general suitability for the location of the 

 enterprises of the rubber industry. High ground rents, expensive 

 railroad transportation, and high trucking cost, have made the 

 industrial development of tnany parts at the mouth of the Hud- 

 son river uncongenial for industrial development and permit 

 their industrial use for only the industries that can settle in 

 such localities owing to special character of their production. 

 Industries producing staple goods and having to compete with 

 factories working often under the most favorable competitive 

 conditions can hope to prosper only if they can create the same 

 favorable conditions in their own location. The rubber industry 

 of New York, therefore, has selected locations outside the circle 

 of the most progressive industrial development of the Metro- 

 politan district and has endeavored to duplicate the favorable 

 characteristic, of a location in a small city with the advantages 

 of having at its disposal the facilities of the big city. 



The same tendency is shown in Massachusetts, where the 

 rubber industry in the beginning found its home in Boston 

 proper, but is now spreading rapidly to the suburbs and is flow- 

 ing over to the smaller cities of the state. Connecticut and 

 Pennsylvania finally represent the newest phase of the evolution 

 of the industry by introducing the decentralization of the in- 

 dustry over a district with a distinct mi.xed industrial characler. 



SCIENTIFIC GROUPING OF INDUSTRIES NEEDED. 



It is obvious that the location of any industrial enterprise can- 

 not be a matter of entire indifference to its owners, neither can 

 it remain so for the nation as a whole. If decentralization, 

 therefore, is recognized as a desirable aim it should be encour- 

 aged. But the selection of the new policy should not mean an 

 entire cutting adrift from the past. The world progresses by 

 evolution and not by revolution. We cannot hope to be benefited 

 by throwing over the old without having first provided for the 

 new. This is particularly the case in the instance under con- 

 sideration. Nothing can be gained by placing factories outside 

 the great centers of their industry for only the purpose of de- 

 centralizing industrial effort. What is required rather is a more 

 scientific grouping of industries in order to make them supple- 

 mentary in their economic wants and effort. 



A new rubber factory for instance might be most advantage- 

 ously placed in a district having already a few chemical plants 

 of a general nature. The existing plants may easily furnish 

 their floating surplus of labor to the rubber industry and in turn 

 the new rubber works might attract labor to assist the chemical 

 industry during the period of their high peak of operation. Gen- 

 erally speaking, districts with mixed industries are always pref- 

 erable to such as specialize because they off'er larger opportuni- 



ties for the new plant in respect to labor, supply of raw materials, 

 and markets. Port cities and cities with a plentiful water sup- 

 ply will always attract the rubber industry. But the case of 

 .Akron shows that a large industry can very well prosper with- 

 out the advantages of a port of its own. 



The problem of location, of course, must always be dealt with 

 strictly individually. But it is just for that reason that it re- 

 quires more thought and care than is generally given to it by 

 the man in search for a new factory site. The thousands of fac- 

 tory buildings, standing empty in the United States before the 

 war because their owners had failed to take the apparently so 

 essential precaution to inquire into their special suitability for 

 the intended purpose, speak a language of caution. There is 

 waste in this form of handling the fortunes of our industry that 

 could easily be avoided. After all, the rent for these buildings 

 and the cost of all inlustrial failures has to be borne by the few 

 who are destined to succeed. Every failure, every mistake in 

 one of those fundamental conditions, makes success more diffi- 

 cult and production more expensive. 



PRESIDENT MID-WEST RUBBER MANUFACTUR- 

 ERS' ASSOCIATION. 



presi- 



It is particularly fitting that John T. Christie shduld 

 ^ dent of the Mid-West Rubber Manufacturers' A 

 He is a native son of the Middle West, and typifies the business 

 enterprise of that sec- 

 tion. He was born 

 June 28, 1878, at 

 Waterloo, Iowa, and 

 has lived in the 

 Hawkeye state ever 

 since. Following his 

 education in the pub- 

 lic schools of Des 

 Moines, he began his 

 business career with 

 the W. W. Wise Ice 

 Co., of that city. He 

 was later elected Dep- 

 uty County Treasurer, 

 and upon the expira- 

 tion of his term be- 

 came a partner in the 

 Harter-Christie In- 

 surance Co., eventual- 

 ly acquiring sole 

 ownership of the 

 agency, which is still 

 being conducted un- 

 der his supervision. 

 Ii; 1915 Mr. Christie was one of the incorporators of the 

 Hawkeye Tire Co., a Delaware corporation, and of the Hawkeye 

 Tire Co., an Iowa corporation, both with an authorized capital 

 of $500,000 to manufacture and deal in all kinds of automobile 

 tires, inner tubes, etc., and was elected president, which office he 

 has since held. Under his leadership the company has made 

 continuous progress, and it is through the success of this organiza- 

 tion that he has become prominent as one of the most promising 

 of the younger rubber men. .\ year after its incorporation the 

 firm name was changed to the Hawkeye Tire & Rubber Co., and 

 later the capitalization of the company was increased to $3,500,- 

 000, and a new factory costing approximately $350,000 was 

 erected. 



A man of rare executive ability, quick perception, keen busi- 

 ness judgment, and deeply interested in every movement per- 

 taining to the rubber industry, Mr. Christie was among the 

 leaders in organizing the Mid- West Rubber Manufacturers' -As- 

 sociation, and was its first vice-president. In December, 1919, 

 lie was elected president. 



C HRISTIK. 



