The Rubber Influence on the City of Akron
... some stock valued at $10,000 in a small rubber company in New York. This was his entry into the rubber business, (3). In 1869 Goodrich noticed the company’s finances beginning to weaken because of too much competition so he set off to find a new location. He went to a few other major cities before ending up in Akron, Ohio. Here the local board of trade wanted to attract as many new firms as they could, (4). Goodrich was attracted by the Akron Board of Trade’s report for 1870 which bragged about the “18.7-mill tax rate, rich coal veins, flour mills, and agricultural works.” It also stated that Akron “is but at the beginning of her greatness,” (1). General Perkins was president of the board of trade and was responsible for making sure the investment of the company was a good one. He thought the investment was a positive gamble for Akron and so he, along with a group of other businessmen, contributed a loan to Goodrich of $13, 600, (4). On the thirtieth day of December in 1870, “Goodrich purchased four lots along the Ohio Canal in Akron,” (3). He bought the land for $1,800 and the shop opened shortly after, (1). When the plant opened in early 1871 it began producing rubber hoses and belting, (3). The partnership, Goodrich, Tew and Company, had a capitalization of $40, 500. “The B.F. Goodrich Company was incorporated as a publicly held entity on May 10, 1880, with authorized stock of $100,000.” Unfortunately, Goodrich was unable to see his company really succeed because he died of tuberculosis on July 11, 1888. In 1881 sales were at $319,000 and they had more than doubled to $696, 000 in 1888, (1). Goodrich was followed by three other major rubber industries, Goodyear, Firestone, and General Tire. With all the rubber prosperity within its city borders, Akron soon became known as the Rubber Capital of the world, (1). The ease of access to clean water, good transportation facilities, cheap fuel from Ohio’s coal mines, and a relatively inexpensive labor supply made Akron very appealing to budding manufacturers, (5). Akron was the first to make pneumatic tires for automobiles and the first to produce de-icer for airplanes, (1). The rubber companies in Northeast Ohio also made many other products such as bicycle tires, tubing, molded goods, druggist sundries, solid tires, golf balls, handmade goods, cotton hose, matting, tilting, packing, rubber thread, auto tires, and rubber boots and shoes, (5). The city of Akron was filled with the scent of rubber constantly in the air along with the many jobs that went along with the mass production, (1). The scent of rubber, however, is not what drove people to Akron; it was the scent of the money that went along with the rubber smell. They came from West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western Pennsylvania, and southern Ohio. These places surrounding Akron were once prosperous lands of coal mines, farmland, and oil wells but they had all turned for the worse and were no longer supplying as many jobs as they used to. Akron was a prosperous place that was close for people to travel to and allowed them to return home to visit on the weekends anytime they pleased. The total population of West Virginia natives in Akron in 1910 were about 2, 075 of the 69,000 total population of Akron. Ten years down the road the city’s West Virginian population reached 13,527 of the total population of 208,435. The numbers continued to grow over the years as the job market soared. Foreign immigrants were also helping to make up the total number of Akron’s population. Most of them came from Hungary, Austria, Italy, Russia, and Germany, (1). Although many people were coming to Akron in search of jobs every single day there were still positions that needed to be filled. Akron’s industries resorted to sending recruiters south looking for potential workers. They liked to recruit people from West Virginia because they were “thought to be hard-working, strapping farmhands who could handle the physical work of tire building,” (1). This was a big contributor of the large number of West Virginians in Akron. World Wars I and II caused a lot of change in the workforce. With nearly 9,000 area men gone to fight in the military many jobs were left needing replacements, not to mention the need to increase production in the companies due to the war effort; women, African-Americans, and deaf people were soon available to pick up the slack. In the year 1910, there were about 657 African-Americans living in Akron which was only 1% of the population at the time. During WWII, however, the population dramatically increased to 23,878 and by 1950 they made up about 8.7% of the Akron population, (1). African-Americans during this time had little opportunity for success in the job market. Akron was just what they had been looking for to open up the doors in the workforce for them. The jobs in Akron were very good compared to the ones they used to have in their home-states, Alabama and Tennessee. Their old jobs required similar work effort but they were very low-paying agricultural jobs; they didn’t mind working hard just as long as the pay was good. The blacks didn’t often have the most desired jobs but many would “argue that work in a rubber shop, even the worst work, was better than an uneducated worker could find elsewhere.” The first black neighborhood in Akron was also one of the poorest. It was located in the Little Cuyahoga Valley along North Street, (1). The deaf population was also growing in Akron. In 1918 there were about 800 deaf workers employed in the Akron rubber industry. The popularity of available jobs for the deaf gave Akron another nickname by 1920: Crossroads of the Deaf. Due to the rubber industry “in the first half of this century, Akron became home to one of the largest deaf communities in the United States.” Deaf people migrated from all over the continent to find jobs in Akron. They came as far as California, Montana, Texas, Florida, and Washington D.C. Jobs such as tire builders, chemists, inspectors, and human resource officers were offered to them. “Akron was the first city in the country to offer equal pay for equal work for the deaf,” (1). The job market in Akron was one that many men thought themselves a lucky person when they entered into it. Akron, at the turn of the century, was known as the kind of place where anyone could become anything they wanted to be, “where a farm boy could become a king.” A proficient tire builder made top wages among production workers making about $5.50 per hour, while the national minimum wage was only $2.30 per hour. The wages in Akron were about 29% above the U.S. average. Although the work was hard and it left its mark on hands of workers, the pay was worth it to them and so was the respect they received. Many people migrated from surrounding areas to Akron to see their dreams come true in the rubber industries, (1). Emplo...