RUBBER INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. The special census of manufactures for the year 1914 reported the number of es tablishments in the United States engaged in the rubber industry as 342. Of these, seven were making rubber belting; 11 making hose; 23 making boots and shoes, and 301 in other lines — tires, packing, clothing, mats, matting, soles and heels, mechanical rubber, rings for jars, rubber thread, rubberized fabrics and hard rubber articles. In none of these lines was the product of less than $1,000,000 in value for the year.
The industry occupied 88,821 persons, of whom 74,022 were wage-earners. The total capital employed was $267,671,422. The value of the raw materials consumed was $163,034,713, and the value of the year's production was $300,993,796. Of the 301 establishments en gaged in the general manufacture of rubber articles, 54 arc in Ohio; 53 in New Jersey; 45 in New York and 42 in Massachusetts; the remain ing 107 being quite widely scattered throughout the country.
The values of the output in the larger branches of the rubber industry for 1914 are as follows: Automobile tires (casings) $105,678,951 Shoes and rubbers 37,858,222 Inner tubes for tires 20,101,084 Solid tires 13,735,681 Hose 16,853,692 Rubber boots 12,647,934 Belting 7,989,405 ' and stationery sundries 7.511,755 aeroplane Wes 6,905,853 Clothing, ponchos. etc 6,799,515 Packing 3,507,1 AB other The chief division of the rubber industry is the manufacture of tires, the value of its out put amounting to 48.6 per cent of the aggregate production of the whole. In 1914 there were 95 establishments devoted to this manufacture, 27 of these being in Ohio and 19 in New Jersey.
i The solid tire industry is centred in Ohio, where 86.6 per cent of the country's output is produced. The production of automobile tires for the year 1914 numbered 8,021,371 casings and 7,907,351 inner tubes; motorcycle, bicycle and aeroplane tires numbered 3,728,138, and solid tires to the value of $13,735,681 brought the total value of the tire output for the year up to $146,421,579.
The rubber industry experienced an enor mous expansion during the war. Detailed figures covering this increase are not available, but some comparative idea may be gained from the amounts of crude rubber imported in 1918 as against the importations for 1914. In the calendar year 1914 the amount imported and consumed in the United States was 142,507,294 pounds, valued at $70,275,840. In the fiscal year ended 30 June 1918 the amount was 390, 338,533 pounds, valued at $203,122,748. Ex ports in 1914 amounted to a value of $14, 767,513; of which total tires of all descriptions accounted for $4,963,270; boots and shoes, and belting, hose and packing, $1, . fn 1918 the value of the exports was $31,649,292; of which $14,650,621 represented automobile tires; $5,762 079 other tires, and $4,525,243, belting, hose and packing. These ex port figures comprise only the rubber manu factures sold in regular trade, and do not in clude the vast volume of rubber articles sent abroad as a part of the army and navy equip ment of the Expeditionary forces of the United States in the war.