388 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April 1, 1919. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN LOS ANGELES. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



REPORTS from the leading rubber firms and rubber goods 

 distributors in this section of Southern California report 

 that the advance rubber business is much ahead of that of 

 last year and that large orders are being placed for goods for the 

 fall trade. There is a strong demand all up and down the Coast 

 for rubber boots of all kinds, and consignments from the East 

 are coming in rapidly. The constantly growing fishing industry 

 of Southern California makes it an especially fruitful territory 

 for the disposal of various lines of rubber boots, although at 

 present the cannen'es are inactive just prior to the big spring run 

 of fish. Fishermen are stocking up, however. 



"Southern California has always been an exceptionally good 

 territory for the sale of sporting lines of rubber footwear," says 

 Lou M. Simpson, in charge of the rubber clothing and footwear 

 section of the United States Rubber Co. "The climate of South- 

 ern California throughout the winter is such as to be conducive 

 to outdoor sports, and there is always a demand for tennis and 

 golfing footwear, while the sportsmen who use sportsmen's rub- 

 ber boots are numbered in the thousands. The first of May sees 

 the trout season in this part of the country in full blast, and the 

 wise sportsman prepares for it in advance, while there are two 

 or three open months in the winter when trout fishing is al- 

 lowed in and around Ventura. There is no part of the country 

 where the demand for rubber boots is greater than here, where 

 the market fishing industry has assumed such proportions, es- 

 pecially when the war created such a demand for fish. Of course, 

 all this created a demand for rubber products. There is no rea- 

 son for any pessimistic cry of hard times at present. Of course, 

 the principal demand on the part of buyers just now is for pro- 

 tection, and, assured of that, they are going ahead to replenish 

 their stock of fall goods." 



George B. Clark, better known to his trade associates and inti- 

 mates as "Nipples" Clark, from the plant of the Revere Rubber 

 Co., Providence, Rhode Island, was in the city early in the month 

 at the Hotel Ale.xandria. He spent a week or so among the trade 

 explaining the merits of his line of golf balls. 



* * * 



J. B. McGee, manager of the United States Rubber Co. for 

 Arizona and Southern California, spent a week in Arizona in 

 various sections, conferring with the rubber trade. The closing 

 of the United Verde mines in Jerome and Bisbee was a tempo- 

 rary setback for the spring trade, but there are good prospects 

 for a revival with the resumption of activities. 



* * * 



The United States Rubber Co. in Los Angeles is taking an 

 extra 20,000 feet of floor space for the accommodation of its 

 business at its local establishment. 



mate demand, but yet quickened by the necessity for supplying 

 all the essentials of which the people of the United States have 

 been denying themselves for so long, as well as many of the 

 luxuries. 



"Economic conditions are unquestionably adjusting themselves, 

 but with increased foreign trade and the development all over 

 the North American continent the prospect is encouraging rather 

 than discouraging." 



H. S. Firestone, president of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 

 Akron, Ohio, has leased the house of the late R. A. Rowan at 

 Pasadena. Mr. Firestone arrived here just in time to give greet- 

 ings and farewell to Henry Ford, who had been here for several 

 weeks but was just on his way East. The close friendship of Mr. 

 Firestone with Mr. Ford has given rise to the sensational report 

 that has been the subject of endless discussion in the East tliat 

 the tire magnate will be associated with the Detroit man in the 

 production of the new $250 automobile which Mr. Ford an- 

 nounced while here he intended to put on the market in a year 

 from now to compete with his own noted vehicle. 



Mr. Firestone made his first visit to Los Angeles in 1906, when 

 he established a branch house here which was one of the first to 

 be located on the Coast. His visit at this time is to make a thor- 

 ough study of the commercial possibilities of this part of the 

 country with the view of extending his business interests here 

 and perhaps for the establishment of a branch factory. The local 

 branch of his company in Los Angeles is under the direct manage- 

 ment of his brother, E. S. Firestone. 



Mr. Firestone declares that rubber is destined to be one of the 

 chief industries of the United States in the near future. Now 

 that most of the rubber plantations of the world are in the 

 Orient, Mr. Firestone maintains that the logical course of this 

 branch of commerce is through Pacific ports. It is his belief 

 that many of the large Eastern concerns which buy through 

 the London markets will in time divert the product through 

 Western channels. He declares that the growth of the rubber 

 industry on the Coast will naturally be followed by the estab- 

 lishment of large factories, as the accessibility of the Coast cities 

 to the rubber plantations will be a great inducement to tire man- 

 ufacturers to locate here. Mr. Firestone is confident that the 

 automobile industry is only in its infancy, and that shipping by 

 trucks will be the favorite means of future transportation. 



Rubber, he predicts, will be cheaper, as will automobiles, just 

 as soon as things are adjusted to a peace basis. He paid a par- 

 ticular tribute to the magnificent road system of California, which 

 is the greatest asset to the development of the automobile 

 business. 



"The automobile has done almost as much to develop the coun- 

 try as have the railroads," concluded Mr. Firestone, "and if the 

 industry continues to grow as it has done in the past, the result 

 will be greater than can be dreamed of at present." 



"The abnormal conditions precipitated by the entry of this 

 country into the war are rapidly passing," said D. M. Bixby, 

 local manager of The B. F. Goodrich Co., "and this is resulting 

 in a more stable condition generally. In Southern California 

 business is continuing good, and we are looking forward to one 

 of the best years in the history of the local branch. 



"There is nothing to support the contention of some of the 

 pessimists that the cessation of hostilities will result in curtail- 

 ment and business depression. Conditions were never so good 

 in Southern California. The influx of tourists is at present, and 

 has been for some time past, in the nature of a record-breaker. 

 This has stimulated the automobile trade in all its branches. 



"The great volume of business which has been side-tracked 

 for war activities is once more flowing into its accustomed chan- 

 nels, and every industry is resuming its normal proportions, and 

 gettng back to a peace basis founded on a substantial and legiti- 



.\mong the leaders in the rubber trade who have visited the 

 Pacific Coast this winter, some of them to stay for months, are 

 Colonel Samuel P. Colt and Charles B. Seger, of the United 

 States Rubber Co. ; Harvey E. Firestone, of the Firestone Tire 

 & Rubber Co. ; Joseph O. Stokes, president of the Thermoid 

 Rubber Co., and Frank A. Seiberlmg, of The Goodyear Tire & 

 Rubber Co. 



-\t a dinner given to Harvey S. Firestone by the Los Angeles 

 Chamber of Commerce, the guest uttered the following part- 

 promise: "Your Imperial Valley cotton is the best in the world, 

 and as 75 per cent of the rubber coming into the United States 

 is now being brought through the Pacific Coast ports, there is 

 no reason why, if you build the cotton mills and the rubber plants, 

 we should not make tires here." 



