578 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 1, 1919. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



THKRE IS A WIDE-SPREAD MOVEMENT in this State to antici- 

 pate legislation and make 48 liours the legal measure of 

 a week's work. Several of the rubber companies are already 

 running their plants on this basis, and in most cases this is 

 virtually an advance of wages, as the workers are paid the same 

 amounts for the shorter week's work as they have received for 

 the longer. 



The Boston Rubber Shoe Co., Maiden and Melrose; the 

 Apsley Rubber Co., Hudson, and the American Rubber Co., 

 Cambridge, are now running on the 48-hour schedule. The 

 Converse Rubber Shoe Co., Maiden, and the Hood Rubber Co., 

 Watertown, are also running their plants 48 hours a week, this 

 being so divided in five days that it gives the employes a double 

 holiday, Saturday and Sunday. The Monatiquot Rubber Works 

 Co. and the Mayflower Rubber Works Co., of Soulh Braintree, 

 are also running on this five-day, 48-hour schedule. In some of 

 these latter plants the five-day schedule is an experiment, and 

 is for the summer season only, but if the plan is successful, it 

 may be adopted throughout the year. 



The New England representatives of The B. F. Goodrich Co. 

 convened in Boston late in May, where conferences were held 

 with executives from the Akron headquarters at the company's 

 branch store on Boylston street, the affair winding up with a 

 dinner at the Copley-Plaza Hotel. Among those who addressed 

 the meeting were : S. V. Norton, manager of truck sales ; E. C. 

 Tibbetts, advertising manager; H. H. Eager, assistant manager 

 of truck tire sales; A. H. Leavitt, manager of pneumatic truck 

 tire sales, and E. J. Hughes, manager of sales personnel. 



A feature of the dinner was a reminiscent address by S. C. 

 Lowe, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the oldest Goodrich dis- 

 tributer in New England. A theatre party concluded the con- 

 vention. 



Another meeting worthy of notice, which was held too late 

 to be reported last month, was the occasion of a visit of vice- 

 president Homer E. Sawyer and general factory footvvfear man- 

 ager Myron H. Clark, of the United States Rubber Co., 

 to the plant of the Boston Rubber Shoe Co. Under the escort 

 of G. L. Lawrence, factory manager, and P. C. Benjamin, super- 

 intendent, the two factories were inspected. At factory No. 1, 

 where Mr. Sawyer served his apprenticeship, he was cordially 

 greeted by a number of employes who were fellow-workers 

 with him. 



The Boston Rubber Shoe Association promptly called a special 

 meeting for that evening at Fells Hall to entertain the visitors. 

 An excellent dinner was served, at which Mr. Lawrence acted 

 a toastmaster. President Guilford of the association welcomed 

 the guests, and declared Mr. Sawyer an honorary member, Mr. 

 Clark having previously been elected as such. Employment Man- 

 ager John T. Cooper extended greetings on behalf of the em- 

 ployes and officials. Mr. Clark spoke earnestly of the im- 

 portance of the best possible industrial relations and of the 

 value of the foreman's influence. He referred to some of his 

 experiences in France, and described the wonderful salvage 

 plants there. 



The address of Mr. Sawyer was of much interest as an 

 interpretation of the desire of the company as to the relation- 

 ship with the employes, and of his own personal interest in 

 them, for he referred frequently to old friends in the factory 

 whom he had never forgotten. 



The Boston Rubber Shoe Association, which was responsible 

 for this meeting, is composed of the heads of departments in the 

 factories and offices of the company, and was organized in 

 fktulier, 1918, to bring about a better acquaintance. It has a 

 iiKinbcrship of 120, and holds at least one social meeting a 



month, and has been very successful in every way. Last month 

 a ladies' night was held, in which more tlian a hundred couples 

 participated. A concert, impersonations and character dancing 

 preceded refreshments, after which a program of dancing occu- 

 pied the remaining two hours before midnight. 



Francis H. Appleton, the well-known reclaimer, attended the 

 four-day meeting of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic 

 Shrine at Indianapolis last month, being a delegate of Aleppo 

 Temple, of Boston, of which body he is now Chief Rabban. Mr. 

 Appleton is very enthusiastic regarding this order, of which 

 there are over 8,000 members in this state. 



Abraham Sydeman, general manager of the Plymouth Rubber 

 Co., Canton, Massachusetts, is a member of the board of 

 directors of the Citizens' National Bank, a new institution 

 which commenced business in Boston the 19th of last month. 



The Hood Rubber Co. is offering to preferred stockholders 

 10,000 shares of 7 per cent preferred stock, being all that remain 

 unissued of such stock authorized to be issued at not less than 

 par by a vote of the stockholders in July, 1917. Each holder may 

 subscribe for one new share for each four shares, or fraction 

 thereof, that he held June 19, and arrangements have been 

 made to dispose, by private subscriptions, of any stock not 

 taken by the preferred stockholders. 



* * * 



At a meeting of the stockholders of the Mayflower Rubber 

 Works Co., Soulh Braintree, Massachusetts, George E. Jean- 

 dheur was elected vice-president, and Richard K. Fields, secre- 

 tary. Both these gentlemen were formerly connected with the 

 New Jersey Car Spring & Rubber Co., Inc., of Jersey City, 

 New Jersey. 



* * * 



William Whitlock, for over IS years with The Fisk Rubber 

 Co., Chicopee Falls, Massachusetti, has severed his connection 

 with that concern, and will take a vacation of several months 

 before again entering business. He has been connected with the 

 tire business many years, at first with the G. & J. Tire Co., 

 Indianapolis, Indiana, where he rose from foreman to super- 

 intendent, holding that position until he resigned to become 

 assistant superintendent of the Fisk plant. Mr. Whitlock was 

 very popular at the factory, and he leaves with the best wishes 

 for his future of the entire Fisk organization. 



Ernest C. Clark, formerly vice-president of the Clark Rubber 

 Manufacturing Co., Franklin, Massachusetts, has severed his 

 connection with that concern, and is now with Beck, Van 

 Siclen Co., exporter. New York City. He is succeeded by his 

 father, Maurice C. Clark, who was for several years with the 

 Banigan Rubber Co., and since then has superintended the 

 erection and installation of a number of rubber mills and reclaim- 

 ing plants. 



* * * 



W. Irving Bullard, manager of The Merchants National Bank 

 of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, has been elected treasurer of 

 the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers. 



Charles T. Wilson Co., Inc., New York City, crude rubber 

 dealer, has opened an office in the Winthrop Building, 1 

 Water street, Boston, Massachusetts, under the management of 

 Marston Haviland. 



* * * 



A. G. McClurg has been appointed factory manager of the 

 Carlisle Cord Tire Co., Andover, Massachusetts. 



* * * 



The Revere Rubber Co., Chelsea, Massachusetts, a subsidiary 

 of the United States Rubber Co., has elected the following 



