Series 1: Central Files

CENTRAL FILES were originally those of Howard O. Hutchens, resident factory manager from 1926 to 1952. Only files concerning the later half of his career, the eight-year period dating from conversion of the plant to ordnance in 1942 through 1950, are present. The series consists of correspondence, memoranda, and reports sent to and received from departments within the Eau Claire plant and from other divisions of the U.S. Rubber Company, including other tire plants and the company's New York headquarters. Also included are incoming letters from persons and organizations outside of the U.S. Rubber Company and the Eau Claire plant. The CENTRAL FILES provide evidence of the major functions and activities of the Eau Claire plant such as the compounding and processing of synthetic rubber stock; tire and tube production, inspection, testing, and quality control; shipping and receiving; industrial relations; public relations; and accounting. The files are arranged alphabetically by sending department, or in a few cases, by subject. For the most part, internal company communications were filed by department and thereunder by individual members of that department. Where possible, individuals have been identified by title in the box list. Incoming non-company or non-interdepartmental communications tended to be filed alphabetically under the general letter of the alphabet by name of sending individual or organization. These files frequently include copies of outgoing responses.

Within the CENTRAL FILES are memoranda and correspondence of the Central Engineering Department. These files concern reconversion of the physical plant in 1943-1945 from ordnance to tire production and detail the construction of new buildings, additions and alterations to existing buildings, and the installation and relocation of equipment and utilities. Included are floor plans illustrating the changes in layout and the placement of machinery. For 1945 there are also graphic progress schedules of the military tire program which track the new construction, machine installation and services required to manufacture war products.

Eau Claire's factory accounting and budgeting systems are documented in the files of the Control Division. In addition to routine correspondence and memoranda, the records include operating budgets and cost reports detailing projected and actual expenditures for materials, supplies, equipment, labor, and overhead, losses due to seconds, and costs per pound of production. Complete plant operating budgets are only present for the years 1945 and 1948.

The identification of technical problems in the tire manufacturing process, and the search for improved methods are reflected in the files of the Eau Claire plant's Development Department. However, materials documenting this subject appear throughout the CENTRAL FILES. For instance, relevant reports and other communications can be found in both the Industrial Engineering and Product Control Department files. The majority of the exchanges with Development concern defective tire molds.

The acquisition, functioning, and maintenance of tire-building machines and equipment, and the supervision of Machine Shop, Mold Shop, and Maintenance Department personnel are topics documented in the Engineering Department correspondence, memoranda, and reports. Also known as Works Engineering, the files include weekly mold and equipment inspection and repair reports, weekly cost reports citing direct labor costs by tire size and brand, and communications concerning defects in tire mold and other equipment. Also included are inventories of equipment on hand, on order, scrapped, or defective; and requests to discard obsolete tools and equipment. Minutes of Power Conservation Committee meetings are filed here as well. T.A. Gustafson's 1942 file concerns military orders and dispersal of Eau Claire's tire-building equipment to other U.S. Rubber Company plants.

Industrial Engineering Department files reflect the functioning of the wage incentive system including such aspects as work measurement and job evaluation, the establishment of labor standards for each operation in the tire production process; and local wage payment policies. The bulk of the files consist of various statistical reports on plant capacity, actual versus projected rates of production, percentage of production schedule met, and percentages of efficiency achieved on a plant-wide and department-wide basis. Many of the tire production reports compare Eau Claire's output to that of other U.S. Rubber Company tire plants such as Chicopee Falls and Detroit. Also included here is a set of weekly progress reports evaluating the activities, total production, and efficiencies of individuals employed in the plant's Mold Shop. Certain responsibilities or functions of the Industrial Engineering Department appear to have overlapped with those of the Industrial Relations Department, as files of the former also include interplant comparisons of wage rates and earnings, and summaries of union wage inequity demands.

The Industrial Relations department was responsible for labor relations at the Eau Claire plant, and materials filed here overlap with the contract negotiation files in the LABOR RELATIONS series. Other activities of the department reflected in the CENTRAL FILES include employee training, public relations, and employee relations matters such as leave policies, and the administration of retirement and insurance programs. Many of the communications in the General files concern safety in the plant, and include accident/injury reports, Wisconsin Industrial Commission hearing decisions concerning Eau Claire plant employees, safety inspection reports, maintenance orders, notices, and agendas of plant safety meetings.

Shipping and receiving, warehouse storage, and inventory control of raw materials, stock, and finished goods at warehouses in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Eau Claire are documented in the Materials Handling Department files. Memoranda and reports from 1949 reflect the plant's efforts to reduce warehouse and transportation costs and to increase the overall efficiency of materials handling operations. The reports consist of monthly statistics on the quantities of raw materials handled.

The Planning Department appears to have been responsible for scheduling the production of the specific brands and sizes of tires, tubes and casings. Materials documenting this Department are fragmentary but the subject of production scheduling is also reflected in the files of the Sales Production Coordination Department.

Plant Expansion Program files for 1943 detail the company's plans to convert the Eau Claire facility from war to tire production. Included are reports analyzing the material, equipment, and labor requirements, drawings showing proposed new buildings, and appropriation requests related to the project. Similar materials on the subject of plant conversion and expansion are also found in the Central Engineering files.

Development of improved production methods, establishment of specifications, inspection of stock and finished goods, analysis of defects, are among the functions documented in the files of the Product Control Department. Included are detailed and highly technical descriptions of experimental procedures, reports on trips to observe production at the Detroit plant, tire quality reports for the years 1947 and 1949, weekly data on number and types of defects, and a 1947 proposal for a plant-wide quality control program. The tire quality reports total the numbers and percentages of defective, repaired and discarded tires and tubes per month by type of defect; average number of cures per curing bag attained; and number of defective batches of mixed stock.

The Sales Production Coordination division established production schedules and processed orders for rubber and tread stocks shipped to other U.S. Rubber Company plants, orders for finished goods shipped to dealers, and unassembled tire parts such as casings, tubes, and flaps. The files, while not complete, reflect the scheduling of production and shipment to match sales of company and special brand tires, the filling of orders for tires and stock, and handling customer complaints about deliveries and tire quality. Included are reports on the status of orders, forecasts of sales by sales outlet, performance reports comparing scheduled to actual production, and monthly reports on mixed stock production and shipping.

Files of the Safety Director consist mainly of detailed reports on occupational health and safety hazards in the Eau Claire plant, inspection reports on potential hazards issued by the New York headquarters Industrial Relations department, detailed descriptions and analysis of specific lost time accidents, monthly accident summaries, and monthly compensation summaries. Some reports identify injured employees by name, and contain information on age, health, and work history. Monthly accident summaries provide the following information: number of accidents total, cause, lost days, number of weeks of temporary disability, names of injured employees, and remarks. Compensation summaries total the number of cases subject to workman's compensation payments, amounts paid, medical and legal expenses, amount in the company reserve for unpaid claims, and the cost. Memoranda and reports concerning plant safety and employee accidents are also found in the Industrial Relations files.

Traffic Department reports and correspondence concern the transportation of materials and finished goods into and out of the Eau Claire factory, primarily by railroad. Included are monthly and yearly statistics on tonnage, loss and damage claims, and transportation costs.

U.S. Rubber files contain communications between the Eau Claire plant and the other factories in the company's Tire Division, as well as the New York headquarters. There are also carbon copies of communications between the other plants and New York. General files mainly concern the transfer of equipment and personnel between the different plants, joint meetings and management conferences, production problems, Gillette brand advertising, and public relations, particularly the arrangement of plant tours or visits.

The U.S. Rubber Company operated tire factories in Chicago, Illinois; Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; Detroit, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Los Angeles, California. The Chicago factory was the site of the Tire Division's District Sales Manager and among the subjects in the Chicago files are promotional advertising, efforts to secure a contract with the State of Wisconsin for tires, and a district sales conference held at Eau Claire in 1950.

The U.S. Rubber Company's factory in Detroit, Michigan was the site of the Tire Division's research and development department and Production Scheduling Unit and the Detroit files primarily reflect the interplant exchange of production data and advice on problems and developments. Included are interplant comparison reports on such issues as defective products, products damaged during shipment, inventory levels, allocations of raw materials, and supervisory earnings. When interplant committee meetings and other special conferences were held at Detroit, the minutes and progress reports were filed here as well. J.I. Martin files contain monthly interplant quality comparisons and memos to plant-level production supervisors about persistent tire quality problems and potential solutions. C.L. Moody was Detroit's factory manager and his files concern production levels throughout the Tire Division. They include regular forecasts of sales, costs and production, daily production totals which Eau Claire teletyped to Moody, and reports on production bottlenecks, failures to meet production schedules, and physical inventory. Also reflected are loans of workers from Eau Claire to other plants, and equipment appropriations, mainly during the reconversion and plant expansion period. Communications from Wanamaker, Tire Division Production Manager, concern some of the same subjects but also document industrial relations, changes in and expansion of production in the Tire Division as a whole and at specific plants, memos on changes in production methods, cost savings measures, and waste and scrap recovery, and lists of production priorities which were issued on a monthly basis. His files also include detailed reports of his visits to various plants.

New York general files contain correspondence, memoranda, reports, circulars and press releases emanating from U.S. Rubber's New York City headquarters and mostly concern matters of overall company policy. Included are reports and memos regarding company-wide safety and traffic consolidation programs, circulars on policy changes and suggested standard practices with regard to production, inventory, orders and distribution, safety, and personnel policies. There are also reports on the status of negotiations with the United Rubber Workers International, and correspondence regarding publicity activities such as plant visits and exhibits. In addition there are press releases, articles, and occasional company publications. Also filed here are approvals for Eau Claire plant appropriations requests and authorizations for equipment and other purchases.

Following the New York general files are communications with F.S. Carpenter and J.W. McGovern, general managers of the Tire Division in 1942 and 1944 respectively. These consist primarily of copies of appropriations requests submitted to the New York office by H.O. Hutchens, for expanding and modernizing the Eau Claire plant, and copies of Hutchen's outgoing correspondence on personnel, physical plant, and production matters. Cushing was U.S. Rubber's Director of Industrial Relations and documents filed here include monthly wage surveys of the Big 4 rubber manufacturers, memoranda regarding negotiations with the United Rubber Workers International, and circulars outlining changes in the administration of the company's benefits plans.

H.O. Hutchens' participation in a Wisconsin regional Labor-Management Committee of the War Manpower Commission is reflected, but not well documented, in the file of meeting summaries and circulars concerning war and post-war labor shortages and allocation problems.

Reflecting some of the contingencies faced by American manufacturers during World War II are materials related to the War Production Board. Included here are copies of mandatory reports submitted by Hutchens detailing the Eau Claire plant's capacity to manufacture ordnance material, copies of the board's orders restricting the rubber supplies, and printed bulletins issued to manufacturers of war products on such subjects as material shortages, the development of substitutes, and compliance with government contracts.

U.S. Rubber's four-year effort to build a new warehouse to store finished goods produced by the Eau Claire plant is extensively documented in the CENTRAL FILES. Included are correspondence, memoranda, and transcribed telephone conversations concerning prospective locations and existing properties, space requirements, and cost. There are also various cost studies, lease proposals from area real estate firms, and building proposals from national contractors. The latter typically include building specifications, quotes, and site plans. The contract for building a new warehouse was awarded to the George Fuller Company. Following this selection are copies of construction progress reports, change bulletins documenting alterations in the project specifications, and summaries of meetings concerning details of the building project. Also filed here is a report issued in 1950, the year construction was completed, entitled “Economic Analysis of Tire Handling and Warehousing from Finishing Through Shipping at the Eau Claire Plant.” Two plans of proposed warehouse buildings are located in the BLUEPRINTS SERIES.

Box 1 Folder 1: A, 1942-1949
Box 1 Folder 2: Accidents, 1944
Box 1 Folder 3: B, 1942, 1944, 1949
Box 1 Folder 4: Boiler Plant, 1943
Box 1 Folder 5: C, 1942-1944, 1949-1950

Central Engineering

Box 1 Folders 6-7: R.Y. Copland (Project Engineer), 1944-1945
Box 1 Folders 8-9: General, 1944-1945
Box 2 Folders 1-2: A.F. Larson (Resident Engineer), 1944-1945
Box 2 Folder 3: C.A. Ostling (Director of Engineering), 1943-1944
Box 2 Folder 4: C.W. Walton (Mechanical Engineer), 1947

Box 2 Folders 5-10: G.H. Bennett [Control Manager], 1944 February-1945 October
Box 3 Folder 1: G.H. Bennett [Control Manager], 1945 November-December
Box 3 Folders 2-3: G.H. Bennett [Control Manager], 1949-1950
Box 3 Folders 4-5: General, 1949-1950
Box 3 Folder 6: J.E. Rasmussen (Special Brands Accountant), 1950
Box 3 Folder 7: A.E. Spoerri (Control Manager), 1942
Box 3 Folder 8: J.F. Weizenegger (Factory Accountant), 1945, 1949

Box 4 Folders 1-2: General, 1947-1950
Box 4 Folder 3: T.A. Gustafson, 1942
Box 4 Folders 4-5: H.T. Helfrich (Superintendent of Maintenance], 1945
Box 4 Folder 6: A.F. Larson (Assistant Works Engineer), 1947
Box 4 Folders 7-8: R.E. Lundgren (Works Engineer), 1949-1950

Box 5 Folder 3: General, 1948
Box 5 Folders 4-6: Personal, 1945-1950
Box 5 Folder 7: Telephone conversations, 1948-1950

Box 5 Folders 9-10: General, 1947, 1950
Box 5 Folders 11-12: F.A. Cobb, 1947-1949

Industrial Relations

Box 66 Folders 8-10: General, 1942, 1944, 1947, 1950
Box 6 Folders 1-2: J.G. Franey, 1945, 1949
Box 6 Folders 3-8: W.C. Proctor, 1947, 1949
Box 7 Folder 1: W.C. Proctor, 1950
Box 7 Folder 2: C.B. Reynolds, 1942

Materials Handling

Box 7 Folders 7-8: G.R. Prentice, 1947-1950
Box 7 Folder 9: W.C. Proctor, 1942

Box 8 Folders 5-6: S.S. Andrews, 1947, 1949-1950
Box 8 Folder 7: General, 1947
Box 8 Folder 8: C.L. Remy, 1949-1950
Box 8 Folder 9: Specification Department, 1942, 1946, 1950
Box 8 Folders 10-11: A.E. Spoerri, 1948-1949
Box 9 Folder 1: A.E. Spoerri, 1950
Box 9 Folder 2: K.H. Stubenvoll, 1942
Box 9 Folder 3: K.H. Stubenvoll, 1947
Box 9 Folders 4-5: K.H. Stubenvoll, 1949-1950
Box 9 Folder 6: Tire Quality reports, 1942, 1949, 1950

Box 9 Folder 7: R.J. Hanson (Production Planning), 1947
Box 9 Folders 8-9: J.F. Reheiser, 1942, 1949

Box 9 Folder 11: W.F. Campbell, 1949-1950
Box 9 Folder 12: General, 1947

Box 10 Folder 4: General, 1945
Box 10 Folder 5: Operating letters, 1942
Box 10 Folders 6-9: H.E. Starin, 1945, 1948-1950

Box 11 Folders 6-10: General, 1945-1950
Box 11 Folder 11: Chicago, 1950
Box 11 Folder 12: Chicopee plant, 1950

Detroit plant

Box 12 Folder 1: 1942
Box 12 Folders 2-3: 1944 March-December
Box 12 Folders 4-5: 1945 February-May
Box 12 Folders 6-7: 1945 October-December
Box 13 Folders 1-6: 1946 January-September
Box 14 Folders 1-7: 1946 October-1947 September
Box 15 Folders 1-7: 1947 October-1949 April
Box 16 Folders 1-4: 1949 May-1950 December
Box 16 Folder 5: N. Ashley, 1942
Box 16 Folder 6: J.A. Daly, 1946
Box 16 Folders 7-8: J.I. Martin, 1942, 1945
Box 17 Folders 1-2: J.I. Martin, 1946-1947
Box 17 Folders 3-7: C.L. Moody (Factory Manager), 1942-1945 April
Box 18 Folders 1-7: C.L. Moody (Factory Manager), 1945 May-1947
Box 19 Folder 1: W.G. Nelson, 1949
Box 19 Folders 2-7: C.L. Wanamaker (Production Manager), 1946-1949 April
Box 20 Folders 1-5: C.L. Wanamaker (Production Manager), 1949 May-1950

Box 20 Folder 6: Fisk plant, 1948-1949

Indianapolis plant

Box 20 Folders 7-9: 1942, 1946, 1948
Box 21 Folder 1: 1949-1950

Box 21 Folder 2: Los Angeles plant, 1942, 1946, 1948
Box 21 Folder 3: Miscellaneous, 1942
Box 21 Folder 4: Munitions Division, 1942

New York

Box 21 Folders 5-9: 1942-1944 June
Box 22 Folders 1-8: 1944 August-1946 June
Box 23 Folders 1-6: 1946 July-1949 April
Box 24 Folders 1-6: 1949 May-1950
Box 24 Folder 7: E.W. Beck (Supervisor of Safety), 1948
Box 24 Folder 8: F.S. Carpenter (General Manager-Tire Division), 1942
Box 25 Folders 1-2: E.M. Cushing (Industrial Relations), 1949-1950
Box 25 Folders 4-5: J.W. McGovern (General Manager-Tire Division), 1944-1946
Box 25 Folder 6: R.H. McKay, 1942

Warehouse construction project

Box 26 Folders 2-6: General, 1946-1950
Box 26 Folder 7: Economic analysis of tire handling and warehousing methods, 1950 May