THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



433 



The Biggs Boiler Works is building a brick addition, 100 x 125 

 uct. to its plant. This will include new offices for the company. 



The additions to the plant of the Miller Rubber Co., mentioned 

 in a previous issue, are progressing rapidly. 



J. B. Bleiler, formerly connected with the Diamond Rubber 

 Co. and more recently vice-president of the Overman Cushion 

 Tire Co., is now in charge of the truck tire department of the 

 Miller company. » * * 



Frank Robinson, crude rubber dealer of New York City, has 

 opened an .\kron office in the Second National Bank building. 



11. II. Henderson. .Akron manager for Henderson & Korn, 

 crude rubber dealers. New York City, has recently returned from 

 a sojourn nf several weeks in Cuba. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN BOSTON. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 

 ""PHE rubber trade continues active in most lines. Clothing 

 ■'■ people have all the business they want for the present, but 

 are making up new samples to show on the road early in the 

 summer, when it is expected that even the large orders they now 

 have on hand for fall delivery will be increased by further orders 

 and supplementary ones. Boot and shoe manufacturers are fully 

 supplied with orders and their factories will be kept busy until 

 the usual summer shut-downs, and we understand that there is 

 doubt about such shut-downs being any longer than is actually 

 necessary to make repairs and alterations before starting anew 

 on later deliveries. Mechanical goods people have had only 

 moderate demand for hose. Evidently many of their customers 

 are fairly well stocked because of the poor trade in this line 

 last year. In belting, however, there is an added demand, evi- 

 dently because of the scarcity of leather suitable for belting and 

 its consequent high price. Druggists' sundries and molded 

 goods people have a fair amount of business and are not com- 

 plaining. The manufacturers have all their factories can attend 

 to. Taken altogether, the trade is in a most satisfactory condi- 

 tion in every branch. 



The double fabric which has gone into the first dirigible which 

 has just been completed for the United States Navy was sheeted 

 and cemented at the American Rubber Co. factory at Cam- 

 bridgeport, and the factory is still manufacturing similar fab- 

 ric on orders. The demand for carriage cloth is so heavy as to 

 tax the facilities of this Cambridgeport factory and some similar 

 goods are now being manufactured in Naugatuck, and it is 

 hoped soon to add this line to the output of the Stoughton fac- 

 tory of the company. 



.fudge Morgan, in the United States District Court on April 

 12, allowed the motion to quash the indictment against Warren 

 B. Wheeler and Stillman Shaw on the ground that the inde- 

 pendence of the grand jury which indicted them had been seri- 

 ously interfered with by the prosecuting officer of the United 

 States Government. 'Readers of The India Rubber World are 

 familiar with the case, whose progress during the last four years 

 has been reported in previous letters. It now seems that the 

 reason for thus finally disposing of the case, was because of the 

 action of the Assistant Attorney General, who directed the grand 

 jurors not to indict another party at the same time Messrs. 

 Wheeler and Shaw were indicted. Judge Morgan holds that the 

 attorney's conduct amounted to improper interference with the 

 rights of the grand jury and that this interference directly 

 aflFected its decision. He further says : 



To uphold what was done by the prosecuting officer in this 

 case is in effect to establish his right to direct the grand jury 

 not to indict a person whom the grand jury had voted to indict. 

 It would make a great inroad on the independence of the grand 

 jury and one of peculiarly dangerous character. 



E. H. KiuriER. 



It is hard to conceive of a plainer case of undue interference 

 by the prosecuting attorney than shown by the evidence here. 

 As the indictment returned was directly affected thereby in a 

 substantial particular, it seems to me both upon principle and 

 upon the authorities that it must be quashed. 



Lester Lcland, vice-president of the United States Rubber Co., 

 and Mrs. Leland, arc now on a trip to California. 



George Wyman, assistant office manager of the Hood Rubber 

 Co., gave a very instructive lecture on the gathering and ship- 

 ping of rubber, and manufacture of rubber goods before the 

 Shoe and Leather Class of the Boston Continuation School on 

 the occasion of the graduation of that class on March 24. The 

 lecture was profusely illustrated with lantern slides from nega- 

 tives taken by Mr. Wyman, who is an expert photographer. 



The Lnited States Tire Co., at its New England branch on 



Commonwealth avenue in this city, celebrated Tire Show Week, 



the third week in April, the exhibition and management of the 



entire affair being in charge of E. H. 



a Kidder, the manager of this branch. 

 Fine window displays were shown on 

 tlie two sides of the wedge-shaped 

 building, which included artistic arrange- 

 ments of the various tires which are 

 made by this company, together with 

 samples of the crude rubber from which 

 they are made. Facing the front door 

 was a life-sized cut-out of a man rolling 

 a tire toward the visitor. The tire was 

 a real one and the man, although made 

 of cardboard, was so realistic that in- 

 variably people dodged out of his way 

 when entering the door. Mr. Kidder 

 and his assistants were present to explain the advantages of their 

 specialties, "Royal Cord," "Nobby," "Chain," "Usco" and plain 

 tread tires. That the affair was a success was proven by a large 

 number of visitors who took advantage of the invitation to at- 

 tend the exhibition, and I understand the result shows up splen- 

 didly on the sales books at Mr. Kidder's office. 



.A. man having the appearance of being an Englishman called 

 upon a rubl!cr man in this city early last month and introduced 

 himself as Mr. Bridge, a brother of two members of the firm 

 of David Bridge & Co., Limited, well-known engineers and mill- 

 wrights of Manchester. England. He reported that he had just 

 come from Montreal, was in poor health and had been relieved of 

 his money on the way. He needed to go to New York and bor- 

 rowed a small sum to take him there, promising to return the 

 loan on arrival. His failure to do so induced the lender to 

 write a letter to the Messrs. Bridge, who replied that the man 

 was an imposter and that no member of their family had been 

 in New York since 1912. .As the Messrs. Bridge have a large 

 clientele among the rubber trade in this country, your corre- 

 spondent feels impelled to notify the trade that they may be on 

 the lookout and not be mulcted by the same story. 



Many of the members of the rubber trade are well acquainted 

 with .Arthur D. Little, former president of the American Chem- 

 ical Society. .Although Mr. Little's special work has been more 

 in tlie line of cellulose than rubber he was intimate with Dr. 

 Weber and other rubber chemists and familiar with the trade. 

 Mr. Little has been retained by the Canadian Pacific Railway to 

 establish a central organization for research work in Montreal 

 to carry out Lord Shaughnessy's proposal for a scientific investi- 

 gation of Canada's mineral, metal, hydro-electric and chemical 

 resources, and to stop waste in forests, mines and mills. This 

 will be known as the Canadian Research Bureau, and its discov- 

 eries will be given out in bulletins to merchants and manufacturers. 



