New-York tribune., 1919-11-18
Advance i'm Tire
Prices Imminent.
Big Producers Say
Increased Output Is Fast
Consuming Low Cost
Stocks of Rubber; Akron
Plants Expanding
Special Correspondence


AKRON, Ohio. Nov. 17.-Automobile
tires are going to cost the public more in
the near future, according to manufac-
turers here. Whereas commodity prices
generally were rising this year, the
price of tires was reduced 15 per cent.
nut now it is likely that the exception
which proved the rule will itself soon
conform to the almost universal ten
deney of prices. Since the cut in the
spring the price of crude rubber has
mounted progressively, and the cost
OF otner raw materials is higher.
IRE makers explain that tremendous
stores OF raw rubber accumulated dur
ing the war years because Of the cur
taiiment OF production, and prices
ssgged early this year. But since then
sne central European nations and
tered the crude market, and produc-
1ion has become SO great in this coun-
try that the situation has been re-
versed manufacturer told The Trih-
une correspondent to-day that as soon
as the plants here have exhausted their
supply of crude rubber, purchased at
low prices, they would find it necessary
to increase the price of their products.
He said that such an upward revision
v dc iluiHiISnt.
Tire Plants All Expanding
The output of rubber products in
Akron, which it's business men charac-
terize as the rubber center of the
world, is at present vastly greater
than ever before. All of the twenty-five
plants are expanding and are planning
20 make the output in 1920 far larger
than in 1919, which will be the largest
on record. Seventy thousand workers
are employed in the rubber mills here.
and in the last six years the STEADY i'm
provement of labor-saving machinery
has greatly heightened the output a
man. The status of the products of the
Akron factories this year, it has been
estimated, will exceed s513.000, 900, and
the pay roll will be $114OOO, 900. The B
F. Goodrich plant, which is the oldest
and perhaps the largest, is turning out
$4,000 tires day, compared with 49,
600. which was the best pre-war rate
Tires represent approximately 90
per cent of the company's business. but
the activity in other products is also
unprecedented. Twenty-seven thousand
pairs Of boots and shoes are streaming
out Of the plant daily, and the produc-
ton will be brought up to $4,000 q day
next year when the new factory units
under construction are completed. The
production Of ties, according to officials
Of the company, will be brought up to
10000 daily next year. At present
le,6O0 persons are engaged in actual
manufacture, and plant additions will
make it possible to bring the personnel
up to $4,000 next year.
Far Behind on Orders
During the war the largest number
employed was 13.2O0. The Goodrich
plants, like the others here, were en-
gagged mainly in war work up to the
time Of the signing Of the armistice.
Its transition was not difficult, and it
was on a peace basis within q month.
The curve Of production, however, has
been rising steadily ever since, and yet
all the companies. it is said, are far
behind in their orders. Foreign busi-
ness is at present extremely small COM
pared with domestic orders, and if the
demand from over seas we're greater
the plants at present would be unable
10 satisfy it.
The rubber manufacturers here eX-
plain that they are now increasing
their plant facilities to take care of the
large international trade they ex-
pect in two or three years. The Good
rich company, which now has a branch
manufacturing plant at Cologne, has
started to erect a factory in Yokohoma,
Japan, to handle its trade in the Far
East. This plant, which is expected to
begin production next May. will at the
outset make tires. insulated wire and
hose. 1t will produce 200 tires day
at the start END gradually heighten
the speed of manufacturing.
City Expands with Industry
The expansion of the rubber indus
try has turned Akron into a large city.
It's population, the Chamber of Com
merce asserts is now 10000. In 1910
it was 69.067. Rubber manufacturers
declare that the city would expand still
more rapidly if housing conditions per-
mitted, and are now supporting q $5,-
100000 fund established to make loans
10 workmen who desire to build.
Seventy per cent of the rubber workers
in the large plants it is said, are native
born, and the other 80 per cent are
composed of forty-eight different ma
tionalities.