508 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June 1, 1917. 



The touring bureau of The B. F. Goodrich Co. has carefully 

 mapped, logged and guide-posted every important road in the 

 United States and this is considered an important factor in case 

 of need of rapid transportation of troops and supplies. 



RED CROSS SCPI'ORT. 



With tlie financial support and cooperation of the otficials of 

 the Tyer Rubber Co., Andover, Massachusetts, every department 

 of the factory is now sending a substantial contribution to the 

 Red Cross. Mention is made elsewhere in this number of the 

 enthusiastic meeting at Akron, Ohio, at which Captain E. E. 

 Buckleton told of his experience at the front. It is reported that 

 over 1,500 persons joined this society in .Akron within the last 

 two months. 



The Fisk Rubber Co., Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, has given 

 to the Medical Corps a fully equipped ambulance, to be kept at 

 the Corps headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts. 



I-XGREASIXG FOOD PRODUCTION. 



Realizing that the production of an adequate supply of food 

 for America and the nations allied with us in the war against 

 Germany is one of the most serious problems with which we have 

 to deal at the present time, a problem upon the successful solu- 

 tion of which largely depends the result of the war, many firms 

 are heartily responding to President Wilson's appeal. .A potato 

 census conducted by a well-known traveling man shows that 90 

 per cent of the factories in the rubber and allied trades are 

 adding big garden plots for their help. 



The Pennsylvania Rubber Co., Jeannette, Pennsylvania, has 

 ploughed and cultivated 60 acres surrounding the plant and turned 

 it over to employes for vegetable gardens. Each employe will 

 plant and care for his own section and receive the produce or 

 profit therefrom. 



The Dupont Rubber Co., Fairfield, Connecticut, is having five 

 acres of land plowed where corn and potatoes are to be cultivated. 

 The crops will be sold to the factory employes at cost. 



The Van Cleef Brothers, Chicago, Illinois, are offering vacant 

 laud adjacent to the factory to their employes for individual 

 gardens. 



The Monatiquot Rubber Works Co., South Braintree, Massa- 

 chusetts, has plowed and harrowed a portion of its vacant land 

 for allotment to employes for cultivation. Much seed has been 

 distributed free and still more furnished at reduced cost. 



The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. is furnishing plots for its em- 

 ployes to cultivate. 



The BeSaw Tire & Rubber Co., Hartville, Ohio, has given the 

 use of SO building lots to its employes for gardening. 



Several hundred acres of ground owned by The Goodyear Tire 

 & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio, not immediately needed for build- 

 ing purposes, have been placed under intensive cultivation, the 

 principal crops being potatoes, navy beans, wheat, corn, peas, etc. 

 Employes preferring this sort of outdoor work for the growing 

 season will be housed in temporary bunk structures. The com- 

 pany is also encouraging home gardens wherever possible. At 

 the Goodyear Cotton Mills, Goodyear, Connecticut, the company 

 offers to plow all gardens worked by employes, free of charge.' 



Employes of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., 

 East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will raise potatoes this spring on 

 75 garden plots 50 feet square. The company has plowed the 

 land and the shop gardeners are buying their fertilizer and 

 potatoes on a cooperative plan. 



The Fisk Rubber Co., Chicopee Falls. Massachusetts, will plant 

 6 acres to raise garden truck for use in the company's cafeteria. 



USEFUL VACATIONS IN AGRICULTUKAU DEFENSE SERVICE. 

 Under the slogan of "Practical Patriotism" the Food Problem 

 Committee of The Merchants' Association of New York is con- 

 ducting a highly commendable campaign of enlistment for agri- 

 cultural defense service in which both laborers and employers are 

 being encouraged to cooperate. 



To prevent the possibility of famine next year the world is 

 depending upon American farmers to grow the greatest staple 

 food crops in the history of the nation. Farmers have the land, 

 but lack the necessary labor for planting and harvesting. In 

 most factories, however, are many able-bodied men who lived 

 upon farms in their youth and so are experienced in farm work. 

 Employers are being encouraged to release such men for periods 

 of two or four weeks during the crop season with whole or part 

 pay, transportation and a guarantee of their former positions on 

 their return. Not only is this a much needed and patriotic serv- 

 ice to the nation, but self-interest of employers and employes 

 alike should make it clear that abundant crops are essential to 

 prevent excessive food prices and consequent abnormal labor 

 costs which will eventually be felt by everybody in the higher 

 cost of commodities of all sorts. Another aspect of the scheme 

 is also worthy of consideration. Such a period of service, though 

 it means laborious work, provides a change of environment, 

 healthful country air and outdoor activity which cannot fail to 

 benefit any factory worker. It is, indeed, a useful vacation, and 

 one which undoubtedly many rubber workers are well qualified 

 to enjoy. 



F.\nRIC. WE.WERS IN LINE. 



.''it its annual meeting held at the Copley-Plaza, Boston, Massa- 

 chusetts, the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers re- 

 solved through a special committee to cooperate in all practicable 

 ways with the food board of the Council of National Defense 

 and the Committee of Public Safety of Massachusetts and other 

 states in the work already undertaken or to be undertaken by 

 these bodies, and to impress upon its members the desirability 

 and importance of their encouraging and helping their employes 

 to cultivate garden plots to supply their own needs at least in 

 part. 



TRITE THRIFT. 



S. W. Straus, president of the .American Society for Thrift, 

 points out that misguided thrift, better descriljed as indiscriminate 

 tight-fistedness, is no less a menace at this critical juncture than 

 wastefulness and extravagance. Thrift must be constructive, not 

 destructive, and to stop the wheels of industry through too great 

 deflection from the usual modes of living would be a calamity. 

 Every, individual should do his part to keep money in normal 

 circulation, as it furnishes uses for capital and employment for 

 labor. Economic hardships will be minimized if each person is 

 governed by common sense, prudence and foresight, making 

 legitimate expenditures as usual, avoiding extravagance, and 

 particularly eliminating w'astefulness in foodstuffs, because on 

 us rests the responsibility of feeding our allies. 



Employes of labor should be courageous and confident in the 

 knowledge that the greater share of our participation in the war 

 must be economic and that the billions being raised for war pur- 

 poses will eventually revert to the pockets of the people, most 

 of our foreign loans also being immediately spent in this country. 

 America continues to enjoy the greatest period of material pros- 

 perity it has ever known. 



FLOATING THE "LUiERTY LOAN." 

 The Indl\ Rubber World is numbered among the leading 

 trade journals of the country, covering nearly every line of busi- 

 ness, which are cooperating with the Government by devoting 

 free editorial and advertising publicity to the promotion of 

 projects for the public good, and particularly in floating the 

 "Liberty Loan." 



The time has come for all to serve, and every person whose 

 plain duty lies in continuing his ordinary labors can best "do his 

 bit" financially. Every man, woman and child who can do so 

 should buy at least one Government bond. Not only will it be 

 of assistance in furthering the cause of human rights, but it is a 

 good, safe investment as well and paying a fair rate of interest. 

 Rubber and allied houses are already performing a patriotic 

 service by calling meetings of their employes, explaining the de- 



