Apkil I, ib)07.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



1^:1 



the fahrica de caoutchouc . Through crowded streets, the driver 

 ringing his big bell, cracking the whip, and hissing at his so- 

 called horses, we rattled and bumped to the Anglo-Mexicana 

 office, which was closed. Then 1, by sign language chiefly, indi- 



L'Angi.o-Mexicaxa Factouy at Saltu.i.o, k. r Xew Process. 



cated that the factory would do. Wlicn once his Aztec intellect 

 grasped my meaning he grinned delightedly, drove across a dusty 

 expanse that was part road and part ten acre lot, waited ten min- 

 utes for an engine that had elected to die on a crossing, then 

 across a hard mud plateau over which any one of a dozen wagon 

 trails was equally good, down a steep bank and through a partly 

 dry river bed, up a sleep bank and we were in front of the tinv 



Office Bi'ildinc; of L'Anclo-Mexicana. at Saltillo. 



new office building of the Anglo-Mexicana. By the way, I forgot 

 to say that a local dentist on the way out stopped me and said 

 that if I was buying guayule shrub he could put me onto 2,000 

 tons. I offered him $10 (gold) a ton delivered in New York, but 

 I didn't get it. Indeed, the dentist seemed annoyed over some- 

 thing and made remarks derogatory to my intelligence, and sug- 

 gested a desire to remove my "block" by knocking it off. 



The factories of the .\nglo-Mexicana showed up as one finished' 

 and running full blast and another about two-thirds finished. 

 'Very soon I met Mr. \V. F. Rutherford, the mechanical engineer, 

 and Mr. H. G. Gunther, the superintendent. Dr. Adolplio Marx, 



one of the owners and the gentleman in charge of these factories 

 and of another at Jimulco, owned by the same company, was ab- 

 sent in the City of Mexico, where he makes his home, so I did 

 not have the pleasure of meeting him. 



The factory in operation has a power plant consisting of four 

 !ioilcrs and a 350 lii'. engine, a rope drive being used to convey 

 |)owcr to the various machines. Mr. Gunther said that the 

 process was purely a mechanical one. They were running night 

 and day, using 160 men for both shifts. All of these were Mexi- 

 cans, the two .-Xniericans n.imed abovf being the only aliens about 

 the place. The new factory will be practically a duplicate of the 

 old one in size and capacity, and will be running in the course 

 of a month. In addition to the new factory the company has 

 just completed four adobe store houses, 70x40 feet and 25 feet 

 in height, for the storage of the shrub, and are adding 39 adobe 

 houses for the workmen and their families. Tlie situation of the 

 plant is ideal, as there is plenty of water, anad the drainage from 

 thL' bis vats where the fiber is deposited after extraction is excel- 



Factory of Ot(jn Katterfeldt, at Go.mez Pai.acio. 



lent. Of the two young Americans who run this, Gunther was 

 formerly employed in large flouring mills near Minneapolis, and 

 later in guayule extraction at Gomez Palacio, while Rutherford 

 w-as with Wcstinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co. 



As the sun came out in the afternoon, in spite of the local 

 prophecy. I drove again to the factory and succeeded in getting 

 some excellent views of the works. Early the next morning, 

 after compromising with the hotel keeper for 75 cents on the dol- 

 lar, with the help of a traveling man who spoke fluent Spanish, I 

 started for Parras. 



The ticket agent had no change at all, so I boarded the train 

 anyhow, getting a seat in the first class half of the combination 



I.NlKklnK ■■K iUK 1 1 .N K .\ i TtKl- tl.Di FavIUKi. L...;.. I'.vLAClO. 



car. By 9 o'clock the sun shone gloriously, and I could well be- 

 lieve all the nice things that had been told me about the climate. 

 The railroad ran through a dry valley plateau, from 2 to 10 

 miles wide, fringed with lofty and picturesque mountain ranges. 

 Here and there were lonely haciendas, about which were huddled 



