Free trader-journal and Ottawa fair dealer. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1920-1927, 1922-07-17
FINANCE and BUSINESS
By b. c. Forbes
Is business recovery genuine?

Is business recovery genuine?
In these days of skepticsm ii is
gratifying to learn Of one large in
dustrial company which is working
three shifts every day Yester
day | ran across w. 0, Rutherford
vieeJpresident OF the b. +. Goodrich
Rubber Company, and extracted from
him lot of very encouraging in
formation concerning changed condi
tons which have been taking place
in the rubber industry, and about the
unusually bright prospects for com
ing months.
When the general business col
lapse befell, what happened through
out the rubber industry was this. n
great many small concerns of mush'
room growth got into grave financial
difficulties. When the standard rub
Der companies began to reduce their
forces very drastically quite a mum,
Der Of trained men were able to pick
up these small bankrupt concerns
for next to nothing, and as raw ma
terial was abnormally cheap they be
gan to supply goods at very low
prices. This competition naturally
affected the iarge cmpanies, with the
consequence that tire and other rub
Der goods prices We're reduced TO le
wells which gave consumers extra
ordinary value This pin prickine
competition. however, is becoming
less ard less OF factor, as the bic
companies simply met the low prices
named by these transient competi
tors.
What will chiefly interest the pub
! lie, however, is the extent OF the i'm
provement already enjoyed and the
| Improvement within sight for this ba
sic industry. That the rubber indus
try is basic industry will be read
| lily realized when it is considered that
rubber enters into every form OF
transportation as well as into many
other lines of trade-surgical goods
footwear, railway trains, street ears
areoplanes, automobiles, buggies, gas
engines, water pumps, electric appara
tus. building construction, etc.
Read these facts and figures con
corning the extraordinary riyiyal IN
Goodrichs' activity, facts and figures
which are the more significant ant
important. because they doubtless re
feet recovery in the business Of 9th
err leading rubber companies;
Last months sales increased APP
proximately $50 per cent. over April's
Compared with last year, May bust
ness practically doubled.
Sales of cord tires since January
of this year are double those of the
first five months of last year.
At this mdment sales are running
at the largest volume in the com
pany's long history
Although three shifts are worked in
both tire and tube departments, un-
filled orders are piling up from both
dealers and manufacturers-the com
pany now has $4,000 active dealers
throughout the country and Goodrich
tires are today standard equipment
for over sixty different cars.
ExC<rt sales this year have been
running approximately 400 per cent
ahead of year ago.
Footwear sales this year are so per
cent better than in 1921.
The company estimates that June.
July and August demand Will exceed
production by from % to 30 per cent,
thus making serious inroads into re.
serve stocks.
Sales of mechanical rubber goods,
regarded in the trades as a trust
worthy barometer of business. have
so increased as to required produc-