The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

With Which Are Incorporated The Bowmanville News, The Newcastle Independent, and The Orono News VOLUME 91 BOWMANVILLE, ONT., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER lst, 1945 NUMBER 44 GOODYEAR CELEBRATES 35th ANNIVERSARY How Goodyear Company Located In Bowmanville C. H. Carlisle, the American Goodyear official who was charg- ed with the responsibility of establishing the first Canadian branch of the company and later became its first president and one of this country's greatest finan- ciers, arrived in the town of Bowmanville on a blustery day in March, 1910. Mr. Carlisle had come to Can- ada to attend the 1910 Automo- bile Show in Toronto -held in the building now known as the St. Lawrence Market. "I liked Canada the minute I arrived here," the former Good- year officiai, now president of the Dominion Bank, told a Statesman representative. "I was attracted by the Canadian way of doing business - window displays in merchandiseand produce stores impressed me greatly." For several weeks Mr. Carlisle carefully studied the Canadian way of life in Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal, and points between. He rode street cars, talked with strangers in hotel lobbies, visited large department stores. And then, one afternoon late in March, he stepped off the train at Bowmanville station. Early Plants Fifteen years earlier, in 1895, the Darlington Rubber Company had first brought the rubber in- dustry to Bowmanville. Withîn C. H. Carlisle six months the young company failed, and was reorganized as the Bowmanville Rubber Com- pany. Less than two years later another refinancing 4became ne- cessary, and the Durham Rubber Company was formed. The Durham Company, profit- ing by the mistakes of its pre- de'cessors, struggled through 13 years of financial ups and downs. It had been engaged solely in the manufacture o.f mechanical rub- ber goods, and had a branch of- fice in Montreal and an agent in Winnipeg. On the day Mr. Carlisle arrived (Continued on page 8) Mayor to Present Bey of the Town To Supt. C. Cattran Special Civic Ceremony to Be Held at the Goodyear Plant Friday Afternoon EDITORIAL Milestone in Bowmanville's Prosperity It is an honor and a privilege for the editor of The Statesman to be invited to share with officials and employees of the Good- year Tire and Rubber Company of Canada Limited, the observ- ance of the 35th Anniversary of the Company's association with the Town of Bowmanville. In fact the invitation embraces the entire community, which in one way or another has shared in mutual progress and prosperity with the fortunes of the town's major industry. It is not only a privilege but a very pleasing duty for the local paper to record not only the programme and pro- ceedings of the celebration, but to review as well something of the history of the Company and of the community during the past three and a half decades. We are happy to present, there- fore, in this special edition of The Statesman, some of the high- lights of the period. Destiny, with a cautious hand, opened the door for Goodyear in Bowmanville even before the Company was formed, when, before the turn of the century, rubber fabrication became an industry in this town. The tide of progress decreed decline of former industries. Carriage making and the piano factory gradu- ally went out of the picture while the infant rubber industry grew and absorbed surplus labor. Woodworking gave way to rubber. By 1910, when Goodyear came to Bowmanville, the motor car was over the horizon and the ground well laid for an expanding rubber industry. From that time forward the Good- year organization increasingly became the prime economic fac- tor in the fortunes of the community. How well it has met its responsibilities may be found in the stories in this issue. The picture is one of local people joining together in office and factory under the dynamic influence of leaders with a vision of the future. Bowmanville was rescued from a threatened decline. Expansion of Goodyear came to mean expansion of public services, security of homes, stability of merchants, revenues for municipal purposes, all the stable foundations sur- rounding the basic needs of a Christian community, a healthful people seeking the highest expressions in the realms of home, church and school. The local picture is one of decentralized in- dustry, a unit in production of goods destined for ever expanding markets, bringing prosperity to what may be termed a rural Canadian district. It may be well to recall that after Goodyear came to Bow- manville, Mr. C H. Carlisle was one of the prime movers in establishing waterworks, the scourge of epidemics and the great modern accompaniment of enlightened civilization. Today the health of the town is at a high pinnacle. Homes became modern- ized, community pride became manifest in lawns, hedges, flowers, trees that water made possible. Then came paving, cleaner streets, improvement to business places. These are but some of the physical features developed under the impetus of a thriving and progressive industry. With considerabty more than half the population, including children, directly associated with the for- tunes of the Company, one can glimpse what they, together, have fashioned in the design for living in the widely known town of Bowmanville. Much more could be told of how the products of farms in the district found markets among the people of Goodyear, but we believe we have indicated in some measure what the Com- pany has meant to the welfare of the community. The thought we would leave in summation is that of people, loyal, competent, responsible citizens, working together with a great organization, seldom in disagreement, serving in a way that has been of high benefit to the town and district and across wide spaces where oth- ers also enjoy the fruits of their labors. So we are happy indeed to welcome those who come from head offices in Akron and Toronto to join in a happy and notable occasion, the 35th Anni- versary of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Canada Limited, Bowmanville. CANADIAN PRESIDENT A. G. PARTRIDGE Goodyear Played Important Part In War Production For almost six years-from September, 1939, until V-J Day- the 700 Bowmanville people em- ployed at Goodyear built weapons of war that were used by Army, Air Force, and Navy in almost every theatre of war and every part of the world, according to A. G. Partridge,aPresident of the Goodyear Tire and Rubben Ca. of Canada, Ltd., and member of the board of directors of Good- eyar in the U.S.A. Products built by these citi- zens were used by Bowmanville boys in front-line fighting, and undoubtedly helped to save their lives and the lives of many other United Nqtions soldiers. It can likely be %aid, as well, that the contribution made by Goodyear- Bowmanville personnel helped in some smali way ta shorten the course alfthe conflict. For the Army Goodyear prr. duced such necessary materiais as heels and soles for soldiers' boots, bren gun clips, tarpaulin straps, mud flaps for field gun carriers, truck fan belts and ra- diator hose, defroster hose, and oul and gasoline lines for tanker trucks which serviced other miii- tary vehicles. Products for the Navy included engine parts, waterproof gaskets for the doors of boats and landing craft, and a secret hose for gaso- line and oil that was designed to float on the surface of water. The R.C.A.F. also used many Goodyear-Bowmanville built war items: fuel hose, de-icing equip- ment, joystick grips, bomber door gaskets, and much photo-1 graphic equipment - ineluding1 grommets, bumpers, visors, and( supports for aerial cameras-and( collapsible gasoline tanks fort training planes. This list is not complete, but it indicates the importance of thet wartime production job done byc the people of Bowmanville whor worked at the Goodyear factoryc from 1939 to 1945.s CHAIRMAN OF GOODYEAR BOARD P. W. Litchfield, chairman of the board of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, will visit Bowmanville on November 2nd to inspect the factory and present *service pins at the 35th anniver- :sary dinner ta be held in the Balmoral Hotel, it has been an- nounced by A. G. Partridge, Pres- ident of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Canada, Lim- ited. Mr. Litchfield joined Goodyear in 1900, two years after the com- pany was founded. A descendent of Pilgrim and Puritan stock, he went to Akron from his ancestral New England home as a youth of .23. He took with him a degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology and some brief experience with rubber manufacturing con- cerns in the east. At the time, the young com- pany was making horse shoe pads, bicycle tires, and carriage tires. Mr. Litchfleld joined the firm as production manager, and with characteristic vision immediately began to turn his attention to au- tomobile tires. The "horseless carriage," like Goodyear, was then in its infancy-and the young chemical engineer saw a great future for both. In 1902, Mr. Litchfield brought out his first tire-a precursor of the straight-side tire which he de- veloped in 1905. During the en- January was a mild winter month in the year 1910, according ta records in The 'Statesman which we have been poring over to dig up data on local happen- ings of those days. For in that year the Goodyear Tire and Rub- ber Company, Limited, came ta Bowmanville. Tomorrow t h e company celebrates its 35th An- niversary and it is fitting that something be told of what the lo- cal scene was like when the dyn- amic emissaries of this growing corporation came ta town. There is no record of what they thought of the surroundings. Their inter- est centred in arranging with the Durham Rubber Cornpany for production of automobile tires. For the growing automobile busi- ness was pushing them ta the limit with unprecedented de- mands. Rubber and Autos During the previous 13 years rubber products had been manu- factured in town. The story is told elsewhere. But generally the community pursued the "even tenor of its ways" as Goldsmith had it. Only two references could be found ta rubber. A. W. Pick- ard, blacksmith, advertised: "Have installed a new machine ta fasten rubber tires ta car- riages." And the Durham Rub- ber Hockey Team beat McLaugh- lins of Oshawa, 5-3. Goal, A. Edger; Point, E. Johnston; Cover, Ren Jones; Rover, C. l4owe; For- wards, F. Christie, A. Mutton, F. Greenfield. They also beat Dun- lop Rubber, Toronto, same score. You'll remember that Robert McLaughlin and sons George and Sam, were building automobiles in Oshawa. Do you recall their cars with brass-bound radiators and the horn with a rubber bulb one had to squeeze ta make it squawk? It was nosing over dus- ty, unpaved roads, while horses snorted protest and farmers sharp- ened their vocabularies. "Them were the days." They were in- deed the days, for Goodyear exe- cutive C. H. Carlisle got a con- tract from McLaughlins ta sup- ply tires. Before the snow was off the ground he came ta Bow- manville with a production prob- lem on his hands. suing years he continued to lead the way, with the cord tire, the pneumatic truck tire, and the bal- loon tire. The story is graphically told with the aid of a few statistics. In 1900, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in the United States had 176 persons on its payroll. By 1939 the payroll had ilicreased to. 46,194-and four years later, as a result of wartime activities, it had reached a total of more than 85,000. In 1908 an automobile tire cost from $35 to $125, depending on its size, and was usually good for 2,000 miles of service. By 1936 the cost had been brought down to from $8 to $25, and could be expected to give an average of at least 20,000 miles of safer and more comfortable riding. Mr. Litchfield became Presi- dent of Goodyear in January, 1926, and under his direction the company has continued to grow and expand into new manufactur- ing fields and new territories. Biographers attribute his suc- cessful leadership of the world's greatest tire company to the fact that he has built an organization of people rather than one of ma- chines. His advice to department managers has always been: "Give credit where cr'edit is due." He has always thought of Goodyear as democratic, rather than auto- 'ratic, in form. First Contract Our next record in The States- man is found in flare-lines: "Bow- manville's Big Boom! Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Com- ing to Town." "Work will begin beside the Durham Co. on a new plant to make tires." Lawyer D. B. Simpson drew up the terms and Editor M. A. James observed: "The new company is not talk- ing, it is doing." An early com- pliment for men of vision and enterprise. That was the start. What were we like in those days? What engaged our inter- ests, our social life? Here's some items from the paper. Excursions to Toronto, $1.20 return; to Guelph, $1.35. In the city we were called -ubber-necks and were accused of wearing rubber collars. Bowmanville Fair was the big event of the year, held formerly where Goodyear houses were later erected on Carlisle Avenue. We had plays, East Lynne and Uncle Tom's Cabin in the "Opery" House. Page the Guy Bros. Remember the male quartette-their music a tuning fork, their chests swelling under starched fronts as they sought the low note in "Asleep in the Deep?" Hats and Rats Was there lipstick then? We scarcely remember. But we re- call the picture hats, hair rats, long skirts and the eye-stabbing hat pins that punctured holes in the tops of McLaughlin buggies. Grandparents, and others, still wore billowing flannel night- gowns. Children choked on sul- phur and molasses. Old soaks rested unsteady boots on brass rails, punctured sage observations with long shots at brass cuspidors. Young squirts raced on bikes with pneunatic rubber tires to be carly at rural church annivers- ariés and gorge on lemon pies. Oldsters took Ayer's Cherry Pec- toral and "invigorated" attended the Sons of Temperance. J. J. Mason was Mayor in 1910, ignoring the tradition that to qualify, mayors had to wear whis- kers. W. M. Horsey was Magis- trate and Chief of Police Richard Jarvis was loved by children and feared by truants and law break- (Continued on page 8) REAL CITIZENSHIP IS DISPLAYED BY EMPLOYEES Civic responsibilities such as membership in the Town Council, service club activities, drives con- cerned with patriotic purposes, community sports, indeed the whole range of endeavors that are part of good citizenship, have been shared in full measure by Goodyear employees in both of- fice and factory since Goodyear came to Bowmanville. For instance, on the present Town Couneil are three Goodyear factory employees, one of whom is Reeve ofbthe United Counties of Northumberland and Durham. In years past others have held like positions. These home own- ers have made a real contribu- tion to civil government. Many other employees have been actively identified with membership on Church Boards, the Hospital Board, the Board of Education and the town fire de- partment. And in salvage drives, Red Cross drives and Victory Loan campaigns, Goodyear em- ployees have taken active, pro- minent parts. Copies of the Wingfoot Clan, the plant newspaper, tel, that in every Victory Loan drive, Good- year-Bowmanville has gone over the top in record time, with sub- scriptions ranging from 113.9 to 145.7 of the objective. On two occasions the employees have been presented with the three- star flag, representative of the highest percent among all the factories of the County. Listed monthly have been the names of employees, between 100 and 200, who contributed to the Biood Donor Ciinic throughout the warand while away their time was paid for by the com- pany. Outside of the Goodyear Re- creation Club, employees have taken part in baseball, hockey, bowling, badminton and other heaithful community sports. The story is all too brief to tell the great interest taken by these industrious civic-minded people daily employed in a great indus- try. It indicates that to get things done, no better means can be em- ployed than in enlisting the in- terest and driving force of busy people. In the present day association of industry and labor there is a dynamic that is to the credit of both and which is accepted by the publie at large. That is the free- dom accorded busy workmen, outside of their daily activities, to take their places in community endeavors to the mutual advan- tage and credit of the three in- terests named. Thus is democra- cy expressed. Goodyear-Bow- manville stands high in this con- cept over many years of progres- sive community building. P. W. LITCHFIELD The Master Mind of Goodyear Turning Back The Pages Of Local History To 1910 The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co, Plant at Bowmanville - Viewed from the Air <.I A key to the town of Bowman- ville is to be presented by Mayor C. G. Morris to Charles Cattran, Superintendent of the local Good- year Tire and Rubber Company factory, at a special ceremony in the company's recreation hall at 1 5:30 p.m. Friday, November 2, it has been announced by His Worship. The ceremony will climax "open house" day at the plant.1 People of Bowmanville and dis-! trict have been invited to visit1 the plant, which will be open for: inspection all day Friday as part. of the celebration being planned to commemorate the 35th anni-g versary of the company's estab- lishment in Canada. Mr. Cattran has extended the invitationto al residents of the United Counties, members of the Bowmanville town council, ser- vice clubs, and staffs and stu- dents of local schools. It is ex- *pected that a number of visitors from Goodyear in all parts of Canada and from the parent com- pany in Akron, Ohio, will also be on hand for the occasion. Visitors will be taken on a guided tour through the plant, and will have an opportunity to see the many types of equipment buiit by Bowmanvilie people for use in World War IL. The tour will take about 30 to 40 minutes, and souvenirs will be distributed. Plans for the "open house" trip are in charge of Mr. Art Hurst, recently appointed General Fore- man. Following the presentation of the key, a dinner will be held at the Balmoral Hotel to honour those 30 "old originals" who were with the Goodyear Company inï Canada on October 1, 1910, when the Durham Rubber Company was taken over. Employees of the company will be given an opportunity to cele- brate on November 10, when a free dance for Goodyear people and their partners or escorts will be held in the Bowmanville High School. A free ticket, good for admission of one couple, will be distributed to all persons on the Goodyear payroll. Two orchestras will provide music for dancing from 8:3& p.m. until midnight, and a mammoth 10-foot birthday cake will be cut and distributed as part of the re- freshments. tw