Geddes Inspects

Fifty-year-old Sir Eric Geddes* returned to the U. S. last week. He came as a businessman, chairman of the Dunlop Tire & Rubber Co.,/- to inspect their plants in Buffalo. Pressmen, scenting soapstone, pressed him for a statement on rubber. They got it in quick, definite sentences that comported strangely with his southern U. S. accent, which he had picked up as a youth working in southern lumber regions and on the B. & O. He said:

"The rubber industry is showing improvement in England, but what the trend of rubber will be I cannot say. I look for considerable fluctuation over the next six months. The demand for tires in England is increasing all the time. Our January business this year was larger than that of last year.

"The business situation in England is showing substantial improvement, and conditions look better there than at any time since the War. I expect the general business year of 1926 to be a great deal better than last year in all lines of business."

*Not to be confused with his 45-year-old brother Sir Auckland Geddes, British Ambassador (1920-24) to the U. S. ; onetime (1919-20) Principal of McGill University, Montreal, to which he may return.

/-Chairman also of the Dunlop Rubber Co. (and Imperial Airways, Ltd.) in England. In 1923 he was President of the Association of Trade Protection Societies of the U. K.; in 1923-24 of the Federation of British Industries. During the War he gained recognition by putting the British and French railroads on an efficient operating basis.