Life, 1913-04-03 · page 35 of 52
Life — April 3, 1913 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **corporate advertisement**, not political satire. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company uses this full page to promote its No-Rim-Cut tires by celebrating its own workforce development strategy. The narrative praises how Goodyear hired talented young engineering graduates from technical schools and gave them research responsibility. The company credits these young men with inventing the "No-Rim-Cut tire" and a 10% oversize innovation that solved major industry problems (23% of existing tires failed via rim-cutting). The advertisement emphasizes both the product's superiority and the company's progressive labor practices—notably that 46 factory workers and 33 office workers became stockholders, and 36 branch managers owned stock. This was presented as evidence of Goodyear's success-sharing and worker opportunity. The "putting young men on their mettle" theme celebrates meritocratic hiring and employee advancement as drivers of innovation and corporate success. This reflects early-20th-century "welfare capitalism" ideology.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
rioczal aldings, re Iie No-Rim-Cut Tires—10% Oversize Putting Young Men on Their Here is one reason for the greatest success ever made in Tiredom. We assumed that existing types were wrong, when 23 per cent became rim-cut. We found that tires just rated-size were overloaded, fully nine times in ten. And cost of replacement, under stand- ard warrant, a few years ago ran up to 18 per cent. We knew that cost was wrong. Mettle We knew that ancient methods had to be improved. And we felt that young men, with the proper foundation, were the men to do it. So we went to the greatest of technical schools. Year after year we picked the best of their graduates. And we set those men—scores of them—at research and experiment. he tires which now rule Tiredom, after 14 years, are those young men’s creation. What They Did First they built in our factory a tire testing machine. Hundreds of tires were there worn out under actual road conditions. They tested 40 formulas for treads— 200 separate fabrics. They compared sores of new methods with old ones— all by actual mileage test. They learned what rubber wore best —the costliest Up-River Para. They brought out our “rivet fabric’ which forms our breaker strip. A machine was devised—now con- trolled by our patents—which gives every inch of the layer exactly equal tension. In the course of years they brought our cost of replacement down to eight- tenths of one per cent. Cost Per Mile ‘These men stood, during trying days, for the lowest cost per mile. Others undersold us. Tires were sold at half our prices, which cost less than half to make. But all felt that some day men would measure cost per mile. And we built a tire which men would come to then. Two Innovations Then came the invention of No-Rim- Cut tires, which we still control. ‘That, at one sweep, did away with a trouble which wrecked 23 per cent of the old-type tires. From that day to this, a No-Rim-Cut tire has never been known to rim-cut. At the same time came our 10 per cent oversize, which added 25 per cent to the average tire mileage. These two innovations gave over- whelming advantage to the Goodyear No-Rim-Cut tire. Then Came Success Then came the vogue of odometers. Men began to see, by mileage figures, what these tires were saving. Every year since the demand for Goodyears has doubled at the least. It has grown and grown until last year's sales exceeded our previous 12 years put together. And now, after two million Good- years have been sold, these tires com- mand, by long odds,-the largest sale in the world. These Young Men Succeeded Too Now comes the best part of our story. One of these young men became (jooD - No-Rim-Cut Tires With or Without Non-Skid Treads AKRON, OHIO superintendent. At 36, he is now in charge of 7,000 Goodyear men. Others came to share in our profits. There are in our factory 46 men who are stockholders in our concern. There are 33 more in our offices, whom we helped acquire their stock. There are 36 in charge of our branches. And still the improvement goes on. Half a hundred men—mostly technical graduates—still devote their time to research and experiment. whole This department still costs us—de- spite all our perfections—$100,000 per year. This is all done to better the best tires men have yet created. To reduce still further the cost per mile, which we have cut so low. And to hold forever the top flace in Tiredom. This season we ask you to prove these tires out, as hundreds of thousands have done, After all our records, the demand from users is now twice as large as last year. It is time for you, if you pay tire bills, to find out why this is. Write for the Goodyear Tire Book —14th-year edition. It tells all known ways to economize on tires. THE GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY, AKRON, OHIO Branches and Agencies in 103 Principal Cities More Service Stations Than Any Other Tire We Make All Kinds of Rubber Tires, Tire Accessories and Repair Outfits Main Canadian Office, Toronto, Ont.—Canadian Factory, Bowmanville, Ont. (1054) comicbooks.com