New-York tribune., 1919-03-23
How Akron
Came To Be
Rubber Hub
DIR. Goodrich, Back in 90,
Started Industry There;
Now More Than 10000
Tires Built Every Day

What Detroit is to the automobile
SO Akron, in a larger degree, is to the
automobile tire.
1t is peculiar and rather remark
able circumstance that this formerly
little-known and rather obscure small
sized Middle Western city should by
the sudden advent of the automobile
be brought within decade to the posi-
tion ot one OF the best known and
most widely advertised cities in the
whole world.
inally that would ordinarily suggest
such fame as has been brought to 1t
as the rubber centre of the world"
1t was the typical easygoing COM
munity of the Middle West, getting
most of its subsistence from the farm
ing community of the neighborhood.
Through the town were dug IN the early
Gays two important canals-the main
artery of transportation prior to the
place of some 10000 people when DIR.
Benjamin Franklin Goodrich first
heard of it through a circular sent out
by a coterie of its business mem call
ing themselves "The Akron Chamber
of Commerce." That was away back
in 1869, and the little hand-bill pros
pectus that accidently reached the at
tention of DR.. Goodrich has resulted
in Akron becoming famous to the far
corners of the earth, as we'll as hav-
ing been the means of founding scores
of fortunes that in those early days
were not only unheard of but un-
dreamed of.
Rubber made Akron, and to-day we'll
over sixty per cent of the rubber of
the world comes to its enormous fac
tories, and it's rubber products are in
turn transported to the ends of the
earth
In response to the alluring claims
made for the little town so we'll sup
piled with canal transportation facili-
ties DR.. Goodrich in 1869 paid the
community visit and undertook to
interest some of the citizens and busi-
ness men in his scheme of building a
factory for the manufacture of rubber
goods. Shortly before this the secret
of the vulcanization, or curing" OF
rubber had been discovered by Charles
Goodyear, an American, who had been
working on the problem for years. By
the Goodyear invention it was possible
to so treat the rubber that it woulc
not be readily affected by temperature
changes.
DR.. Goodrich saw the opportunity
) and Akron capital enabled him to es
tablish his business at that obscure
city. That was the beginning of {
wonderful development. AS the de
: mand for rubber goods increased
Akron expanded, until with the com
ing of first the bicycle and then ths
automobile and the rubber tires they
:, made necessary Akron jumped MOI
alone in fame but in material success
: to the front ranks of American cities
The Akron of to-day is hustling
, busting centre of great American in
dustry, with population of more thar
100000. The original rubber factory
! which employed about twenty five
men at the beginning, is now a giant
concern employing over 10000 people
and doing business of hundreds OF
millions annually; it is surrounded by
> other and even bigger companies, and
; Akron is real hive of industry.
, There are twenty-four rubber manu-
featuring companies in Akron and the
aggregate sales of its rubber products
reached above $300,000,000 last year
, Akron is now building more than
10000 automobile tires every day and
as many inner tubes.