Decemuer 1, 191; 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



139 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN BOSTON. 



fiy Our Regular Correspondent. 

 T~'111-IRE is little let-up in the various lines of rubber goods pro- 

 duction. .All are busy ; none below normal for this time of year 

 and some finding more demand than capacity to supply. .Among 

 those in this latter condition the clothing trade is perhaps at the 

 head of the list. The manufacturers of rubber coats and similar 

 goods are so far behind their orders that they are rushing their 

 working forces on overtime work as far as possible consistent 

 with proper quality of the output. The makers of high-class 

 coats are particularly busy. The makers of rubber footwear are 

 busy on all lines, the only exception seeming to be in low felt 

 overshoes, which have been growing in smaller demand for the 

 last three or four seasons. This is more than balanced by an 

 increased call for high arctics of the "emperor" variety. Tennis 

 shoes are to be seen in all colors, plain and in combination, and 

 with heels of all heights, even up to covered wooden heels with 

 rubber "toplifts." There is a genuine boom in rubber soles — 

 straight rubber and various composites and combinations — and 

 rubber heels are in increasing demand. The hose business is 

 (juiet. There was less demand than usual for garden hose, and 

 dealers have carried over pretty full stocks. Fire hose business 

 is not heavy, but one or two makers of heavy vacuum hose have 

 lillcd contracts. There is some increased call for rubber belting. 

 Makers of molded goods and drug sundries are busy. 



.A new rubber factory is to be erected in Maiden. The ground 

 has already been broken preparatory to building. H. H. Kelley 

 & Co., dealers in shoe findings and shoe store supplies of Boston, 

 have taken title to several plots of ground at Maplewood station 

 in Maiden, which will be transferred to a new corporation about 

 to be formed, under the name of the Maiden Rubber Co. The 

 new factory will be a two-story building, 125 x 40 feet, and is so 

 planned that it can be added to and extended as the demand for 

 their goods may warrant. L. H. Williams, who knows rubber 

 manufacturing from one end to the other, both in Europe and 

 here, will be the president of the new company and have charge 

 of the manufacture of the product, which will be mechanical 

 rubber goods and rubber soles and heels. Franklin P. Cowing, 

 ijf the firm of H. H. Kelley & Co., will be the treasurer of the 

 company. It is expected that the factory will be completed and in 

 operation in January ne.\t. 



The question of the legality of a franchise tax is to be tested 

 l)y the bringing of a bill in equity in the United States Court, 

 seeking to restrain the Tax Commissioner, the State Treasurer 

 and the Attorney-General from collecting a franchise tax of $40,- 

 161.59 from the Boston Rubber Shoe Co., of Maiden, Massachu- 

 setts. This bill alleges that the company, in 1914, paid a tax of 

 $5,036.41, and that in March of the present year it received no- 

 tice of an additional tax of $40,161.99, purporting to be a fran- 

 chise tax. This, the company contends is illegal and unconsti- 

 tutional. The rate of the franchise tax for 1915 is $18.55 per 

 thousand dollars. This would make the assessed value of the 

 stock of the Boston Rubber Shoe Co. about $2,112,000. 



Speaking of taxes, it may be of passing interest to the many 

 readers of The India Rubber World who knew Robert Dawson 

 Evans, to learn that Mrs. Marie A. Evans, his widow, pays the 

 largest individual tax in Beverly. Massachusetts, her bill this 

 year being $83,589.92. 



Mrs. Evans has made excellent use of her money in the way 

 of public benefactions; the Evans Memorial Building being her 

 gift to the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital, where are given 

 weekly, during the winter, free public health lectures. In this 

 beautiful building are housed the departments of clinical re- 

 search and of preventive medicine. Another and finer gift, which 



has been pictured in this journal, is the Evans addition to the 

 Museum of Fine Arts in this citj — one of the noblest pieces of 

 architecture to be found in New England. But this is not all. 

 Last month the trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts announced 

 a further gift of $50,000 from Mrs. Evans, to establish a memorial 

 fund to the memory of her mother, Mrs. David Hunt. As Mrs. 

 Hunt was interested in sculpture, Mrs. Evans has chosen that this 

 fund shall be for the benefit of sculpture and modeling in the 

 school of the museum. Part of the income of this fund is to be 

 used for scholarships, to be awarded each year to promising stu- 

 dents in sculpture. There will be two scholarships of $250 each, 

 these awarded yearly, and a traveling scholarship of $1,200, 

 awarded not oftener than once in three years, for a year of study 

 in Europe by some gifted graduate of the school. The balance 

 of the income is to be used toward paying the salary of the in- 

 structor in modeling. 



The George P. Cox Last Co., of Maiden, has been somewhat 

 unfortunate of late. On October 1, one of its drying houses was 

 burned. On November 17, another dry house met the same fate. 

 Both were well filled with last blocks in the rough, which were 

 licing seasoned before being turned into lasts. The second fire 

 destroyed 15,000 blocks, and the first nearly as many. Notwith- 

 standing this loss, the manager of the plant states that there will 

 !)e no interruption of the business, which will be carried on as 

 usual, supplying lasts to the manufacturers of rubber boots and 

 shoes. There were ten such dry houses on the premises, and thus 

 it will be seen that while the loss was considerable, the company 

 was but little inconvenienced by this double conflagration. 



The Bemis Rubber Co.'s plant, situated on the Boston & 

 Maine Railroad at Bemis, a section of Watertown, Massachu- 

 setts, has been sold to Everett C. Tarr of this city, and H. R. 

 Berry of New York. From other sources it is reported that ex- 

 tensive alterations and improvements will be made, and that it will 

 be occupied by the Pan-.American Chicle Co. 



The plant occupies a lot of over 80,000 square feet of area, 

 with buildings covering'.20,000 feet, all equipped with boilers, en- 

 gines and rubber workiiig machinery. There is a railroad siding 

 along the premises, .tqiaccommodate six cars. The location is 

 a desirable one, and 4l«:- plant, with the improvements contem- 

 plated, will have a large capacity. 



* * * 



The Avon Sole Co., of Avon, Massachusetts, began, not so long 

 ago, manufacturing a sole compounded of rubber and shredded 

 leather. After the sole was just right it was exploited among the 

 shoe manufacturing trade. The prices were high, higher than 

 some others tending towards a similar combination ; but having 

 proved that they were worth the prices, the company held to 

 them, and kept up the quality, consistently refusing to cheapen 

 their product. The consequence is that they have had to double 

 their capacity to supply the demand, and the new addition to 

 their plant is just completed, a new power Iinuse being also added 

 to furnish heat, light and power. 



* * * 



The J. H. Stcdman Co., the well-known scrap rubber house, 

 aimounces the removal of its Boston office to South Braintree, 

 Massachusetts, where it will be joined with the general office in 

 the commodious new quarters recently erected. In the future 

 .lU buying and selling inquiries should be addressed to the South 

 liraintrcc address. 



* * ♦ 



Harry M. Gordon, who for 19 years has been identified with the 

 White Co., even before it made motor cars, was tendered a tes- 

 timonial dinner by his past and his future business associates at 

 the Engineers' Club on the evening of November 13. Mr. Gordon 

 was with The White Co. in the old bicycle days, when he traveled 

 .ind established agencies all over New England, and managed 



