214 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



fjANUARY 1, 1917. 



M. M. CONVERSE. 



M. M. Converse. 



IWIAKQUIS M. CONVERSE, head of the Converse Rubher 



Shoe Co., Maiden, Massachusetts, was born in Lyme, New 



Ham|ishire, October 23. 1861. After attending the district school 



there he com- 

 pleted his edu- 

 cation at the 

 T li e t f o r d 

 ( V e r mo n t ) 

 Academy, and 

 at the age of 18 

 went to Sher- 

 brooke. Prov- 

 ince of Quebec, 

 Canada, for 

 about a year, as 

 telegraph oper- 

 ator. 



Coming to 

 Boston in 1880, 

 he entered the 

 depart- 

 ment store of 

 Houghton & 

 Dutton, where 

 he officiated for 

 a year as buy- 

 er, and for the 



ne.xt iive years as superintendent. His health then giving away, 

 he was warned by his physician that he must go to the country. 

 At Lebanon, New Hampshire, he then bought the small depart- 

 ment store of G. W. Houghton, a brother of Samuel Houghton, 

 of Houghton & Dutton, and the originator of the department 

 store idea. There he remained until 1887 when, with health 

 regained, he returned to Boston, and with Henry L. Pike formed 

 the partnership of Converse & Pike and assumed the selling 

 agency in that cit\' of the Wales-Goodyear line of rubber foot- 

 wear. 



The new lirm secured comparatively small space on the second 

 tloor of a Ijuilding near the large store of W. L. Sage, at that 

 time probably the principal rubber jobber in Boston. \\'ithin 

 a few days, Mr. Sage, who, it will be remembered, always 

 dressed in the height of fashion and rather showily, walked into 

 the Converse & Pike establishment and introduced himself as 

 "William Lincoln Sage, your competitor across the street." Tak- 

 ing it for granted that the young men knew nothing about the 

 business, he at once offered them the opportunity to look over 

 his establishment and see the arrangement of floor space and 

 the building of bins for sorting the goods. Not only that, but he 

 offered to impart to them any knowledge he might have regard- 

 ing the credit of such customers as they might sell to, and in 

 other ways showed his good will toward this competitor, which, 

 in a facetious way, he had dubbed "the little pint cup rubber 

 house." 



In 1899 Mr. Converse had a nervous breakdown. Energetic 

 and amliitious, he had worked for years without taking a vaca- 

 tion, and much of the time doing two or three men's work every 

 day. The result was inevitable, and for three years he was 

 obliged to remain out of business. 



Having recovered his health, in 1902 he became the president 

 of the Beacon Falls Rubber Shoe Co.'s distributing agency in 

 Boston, and during the next six years was highly successful in 

 building up the New England business for this new manufactur- 

 ing firm. 



As showing the perspicacity of George H. Lewis, then presi- 

 dent of the Wales-Goodyear Co., when he chose Mr. Converse 

 as the man to push his goods to the New England trade, he in- 



sisted that the six-year contract should read that Mr. Converse 

 should work but ten months out of twelve. Being a man of 

 action. Mr. Converse demurred, but Mr. Lewis, insisted on writing 

 into the contract that he should keep away from business entirely 

 during July and August of each year ; that if at any time he 

 attended to any details of business during those months, the con- 

 tract should terminate. 



In 1908 Mr. Converse determined to go into manufacturing on 

 his own account, and established the Converse Rubl)er Shoe Co., 

 building a small factory in the Edgeworth district of Maiden. 

 Massachusetts. His able management continued, and in the sum- 

 mer of 1916 the factory was greatly enlarged, more than doubling 

 its capacity, and yet the demand for its goods was even greater 

 than the factory could supply. 



Mr. Converse is a man of quiet, forceful manner, with a wealth 

 of original ideas, as is proved by his progress in the line to which 

 he has devoted the greater portion of his business life. 



PERSONAL MENTION. 



Jesse E. La Dow, of the IManstield Tire & Rubber Co., Mans- 

 field, Ohio, is on the briny deep on his wa}' jiresumably to the 

 Far East ; at least he wrote from Yokohama in November, 

 having left Vancouver 15 days before on the Empress of Japan. 

 The story of the memorable trip published in the "Mansfield 

 News" is most interesting. However, one statement is, to say 

 the least, remarkable. He says : "Our steamship was in sight 

 of the Azores." Pretty far sighted to see the Azores from the 

 Northern Pacific ! 



Mr. La Dow does far better, however, in a letter from Japan 

 to the "New York Herald." There he cites the wages of the 

 Japanese factory workers which are only one-tenth of what they 

 are in the United States ; in fact, constitute the lowest factory 

 wages in the world. When the big Japanese rubber mills get 

 into rubber lines where labor is the biggest factor, competition 

 will be difficult, to say the least. 



Tlie many friends in the trade of Robert B. Baird, vice-presi- 

 dent of the Rubber Trading Co., will be glad to learn that he has 

 returned to his desk. Robert L. Baird has just returned from a 

 tri]) to Cuba. 



Gove & French, Inc., New York City, announce that Walter 

 H. Bass is now associated with the company. 



Mr. and Mrs. George W. Ryan, of East Orange, New Jersey, 

 announce the engagement of their daughter. Miss Helen Hath- 

 away Ryan, to Collier W. Baird, son of Mr. and Mrs. William 

 T. Baird, and assistant treasurer of the Rubber Trading Co., 

 9-lS Murray street. New York City. Mr. Baird is a graduate 

 of Yale Sheffield, class of 1910, and is a member of the Yale and 

 Essex Country Clubs and of Essex Troop, with which he re- 

 cently served on the border. 



Rawson R. Cowen, son of the late Robert Cowen, has been 

 added to the selling force of the New Jersey Rubber Co., Lam- 

 bertville. New Jersey, rubber reclaimers, and will travel in New 

 York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 



O. D. Garretson. secretary and treasurer of the Electric Hose 

 & Rubber Co., is president of the Manufacturers' Association of 

 Wilmington (Delaware), also of the Employers' Association, 

 and takes an active and enthusiastic interest in all matters making 

 for the betterment of Wilmington as an industrial and home 

 center. 



Richard Weil, manufacturers' agent, well known in the East 

 Indian crude rubber trade, has returned to the Far East after a 

 two weeks' business sojourn in the United States. He expects 

 to return to New York in June. 1917. 



F. G. Hettell, having been associated with Parker, Stearns & 

 Co.. druggists' sundries maniifacturers, Brooklyn, New York, as 

 superintendent for over 25 years, has resigned to take effect 

 January 1, 1917. 



