138 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February i, 1907. 



production continues lar,^e only throug;h the exploita- 

 tion \ear by year of new districts, to which there must 

 in time be a limit. 



It is not certain, of course, that rubber culture will 

 prove uniformly so successful as in the Far East, but 

 its practicability, on the whole, has been proved, and 

 those engaged in it are to be congratulated upon the 

 record of 1906. 



THE COTTON PROSPECT. 



TT AKING the rubber industry as a whole, cotton is 

 almost as indispen.sable to it as rubber itself. 

 Everybody knows how important a part cotton fabrics 

 play in the construction of an automobile tire, and 

 similarly, cotton is required to give strength to most 

 articles in the mechanical rubber goods branch. In- 

 deed, when what is now called rubber belting was first 

 produced in America, the manufacturers termed it 

 "combination" belting, having reference to the prac- 

 tically equal importance of the two components, rub- 

 ber and cotton. Even the everyday rubber shoe 

 would not be possible but for the textile goods em- 

 ployed in its making. 



Naturally, the price of cotton is a matter of great 

 consequence to the rubber industry, the advances 

 which have taken place in recent years having had 

 hardly less effect than the enhanced cost of raw i-ubbev 

 in forcing up the selling prices of rubber goods. The 

 consumers of rubber have had to accommodate them- 

 selves to a constantly rising price level for rubber, 

 until there is now no longer any recognized "normal" 

 standard of cost, but all the while the hope has been 

 entertained that cotton prices would some day sink 

 again to what was formerly considered a reasonable 

 figure. The realization of this hope, however, seems 

 likely to be long deferred. The year just closed 

 showed, as did 1905, that consumption treads so closely 

 on the heels of production that relatively high prices 

 for raw cotton were the logical and inevitable conse- 

 quence. All estimates for the crop of 1907 point to a 

 still larger production, but not necessarily to lower 

 prices. 



The fact is that the world is using more cotton. 

 There are more people in the world every year; in 

 many countries the people are coming to have greater 

 buying power; and more tropical people are acquiring 

 the habit of wearing clothes, and gradually of putting 

 cotton to other uses. The increasing use of cotton is 

 shown by the rapid growth of the cotton spinning and 

 weaving industry in England, in America and in Asia. 

 If the United States were to continue to be the main 

 reliance for the supply of raw cotton, a real "shortage" 

 would not be long in developing, but new cotton fields 

 are being opened elsewhere, and they promise to be- 

 come increasingly important. 



The new mills completed or in course of erection in 



Lancashire last year were to contain 8.000,000 spindles, 

 of which 2,000,000 were to spin Egyptian cotton. Eng- 

 land imported Brazilian cotton during the first eight 

 months of 1905 to the value of £986,900; during the 

 same period of 1906 the figures were £6,022,100. India 

 already is an important cotton producing country, and 

 China is becoming such. And now in every European 

 colony in Africa within degrees of latitude suited to 

 cotton growing, systematic efforts are being made to 

 introduce the cultivation of this plant. It is true that 

 England's earnest efforts, sixty years ago, to become 

 independent of America in the matter of cotton did not 

 at once make India a great cotton producer, but this 

 does not necessarily prove anything to the prejudice of 

 her present attempts to grow cotton in West Africa. 

 There is, in fact, much reason to expect that the 

 American production of cotton, without declining in 

 vohmie, will before long become a relatively smaller 

 part of the world's total. In this prospect lies the only 

 hope now discernible of materially lower prices for 

 cotton. And, as to lower prices, the American planter 

 should be able, with the help of science, to continue to 

 make a profit, regardless of any competition elsewhere. 



RAILWAYS IN RUBBER COUNTRIES. 



A N article printed on another page describes a cer- 

 tain little-heard-of station m Africa as the actual 

 center of the Congo rubber trade. This is the point 

 at which all produce of the Congo basin, on its way to 

 the seaboard, is obstructed by the cataracts in the 

 river, when it is transferred to the railway trains, 

 which supplanted the old-time portage system, to the 

 great benefit of commerce. There are many other 

 rubber producing sections in which the need of a 

 similar railway service has often been suggested, since 

 so many rivers in those countries are blocked by 

 troublesome obstructions. Tlie trouble, however, is 

 that the rubber trafiic alone does not promise a suf- 

 ficient return to justify the building of a rail line, say 

 around the falls of the Madeira. 



\\'hile the Congo railway has proved a profitable 

 enterprise, it is not occupied in carrying rubber alone. 

 Ivory, copal and other African products are conveyed 

 over it, together with all imports into the whole Congo 

 basin. Besides, the road serves as the sole means of 

 transportation, for a certain distance, for the civil and 

 military establishments of the Congo Free State. 

 These conditions do not exist in Bolivia, for instance, 

 nor has the government there any such monopoly of 

 the country's resources as to enable it to turn the rub- 

 ber crop to account in promoting whatever enterprises 

 it may choose to favor. 



But Bolivia fortunately has other resources than 

 rubber, the development of which promises more to 

 investors in transportation enterprises than does rub- 

 ber. \\'ithout going into detail, it may be mentioned 

 that Boli\ia is one of the richest countries in the world 



