U. S. Rubber

The annual report of the U. S. Rubber Co. for 1923 showed net income of $7,392,657, or $2.28 a share, as compared with $7,692,039 or $2.65 a share in 1922. The fact that net sales rose from $168,786,350 in 1922 to $186,261,381 last year shows that the Company's business was carried on at diminishing rate of profit.

Several conditions in the tire business have been unsatisfactory during the past year, have reduced the profits of U. S. Rubber as well as those of Kelly-Springfield (TIME, March 10) and other companies. In addition, the rubber footwear business has lagged somewhat, owing to the relatively mild Winters of the past two years.

President C. B. Seger in his statement to stockholders stressed the satisfactory progress made by the company's rubber plantations in Sumatra and Malay Peninsula. The plantations enable U. S. Rubber to obtain cheap and uniformly pure crude rubber. Last year they earned a profit. But the profits and the accumulated surplus of the plantation companies are not included in the consolidated statement of the U. S. Rubber Co.