234 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May I, 1907. 



ners proportionately more for the long staple. But this 

 writer mentions one planter who for years has been grow- 

 ing lj4-inch cotton, which this year he sold at 10 cents 

 a pound above the price for ordinary 1-inch uidauil cot- 

 ton. Xow if the situation is really as pointed out in 

 The Cotton Journal, the rubber trade, for example, might 

 become more independent of the growers of Sea Island 

 cotton through the substitution for it of other American 

 grades. And if a few growers of upland, here and there, 

 can grow extra long staple cotton and profit by it, why 

 may not a great number do the same ? 



The United States Daily Consular Reports recently 

 contained an article on the advantage which British man- 

 ufacturers derive from the mixing of cottons. Whereas 

 the American manufacturer, as a rule, confines his selec- 

 tion to home grown material, the Lancashire spinner 

 finds in the Liverpool market not only American cotton, 

 but the products of India, Egypt, Brazil, Peru, and the 

 West Indies, varying in length of staple and all the other 

 salient qualities. The consular report indicates that, with 

 such a variety to select from, the British spinners have 

 become particularly expert in testing cotton and learning 

 its real worth and adaptation to any particular purpose. 

 Herein lies one reason wliy British manufacturers have 

 been able to sell certain cotton fabrics for less money 

 than any of their competitors. 



The situation with regard to cotton, so far as the Amer- 

 ican rubber trade is concerned, suggests the period when 

 only Para lubber was used, and other grades, as thev 

 gradually became available, were regarded with disfavor 

 or distrust. Xow tiiese other grades are used in as large 

 volume as Para rubber, each being carefullv chosen for 

 a particular reason. And not the least important advance 

 which has been made in ihe rubljcr industry has been in 

 the art of mixing various rublicrs in the same compound, 

 each giving some desired qualitv to the finished product. 

 This, we take it, is what the Lancashire mills are doing 

 with cotton, and what American spinners doubtless are 

 learning to do. There are situations, of course, where 

 the rubber trade requires cotton fabrics for which Sea 

 Island cotton is indispensable. But this has become an 

 expensive material, such as a manufacturer is not justi- 

 fied in using when a lower priced grade might meet the 

 requirements, either alone or in combination with .Sea 

 Island. 



THE BRITISH TIRE MARKET. 



ALKADIXCi rubber tire manufacturer in England 

 writes in a contemporary complaining of the situa- 

 tio;i v.herein his own market is invaded freely from the 

 cortinent, while he is debarred from selling goods abroad 

 by prohibitive customs charges. He refers to a particular 

 coir.pany as "collecting in England thousands of pounds 

 weekly [for tires] and sending it to Germany to pa\ the 

 wages of thousands of German hands and the rates and 

 taxes of Germany, whereas here we onlv get the advan- 



tages of a few pounds a week spent by their small statY 

 of selling clerks." This same Germany company, we are 

 told, advertise "in a most tantalizing way" the number 

 of hands they employ abroad to supply English want^ 

 which, the writer thinks, the English could supply them- 

 selves. 



The manufacturer we quote dro])s here into pulitics, 

 and hints that Britishers should no longer be "content 

 with doing what our grandfathers told us we should do, 

 while everyone admits that things are different now," 

 lint meet "this new foreign dumping scheme" with re- 

 taliation. If Britishers are not allowed to sell tires in 

 Germany, keep the Germans out of Britain, even to the 

 point of forgetting- the teachings of Cobden. 



lUit politics as a rule is none of our affair, and pai- 

 ticularly foreign politics, though we may hazard a doubt 

 that England will soon put a protective duty upon rubber 

 tires. Meanwhile, what have tariff's elsewhere to do with 

 the sale of tires in England? Home and foreign makers 

 meet there on common ground, except that the foreigner 

 has to pay more to get his wares to market. Then, if 

 the home factory can supply goods of a given quality at 

 prices as low as the imported article, what reason is there 

 to fear outside competition? 



GOOD WORK OF THE CONSULS. 



THE American consular service, we believe, will not 

 suff'er by comparison with that of any other nation. 

 It includes many consulates of long standing, and the 

 force includes not a few officials of many years' experi- 

 ence. As an example of the capable men the service has 

 embraced, even at minor ports, mention may be made of 

 a certain consul sent to Para, wdio wrote one of the first, 

 if not the first, consular rejinrts in any country relating to 

 rubber, who established a iuisiness of importing rubber 

 to the United States and instigated the establislmient of 

 some important rubber factories here ; and who founded 

 in Great Britain, first under his own name and later as 

 a public company, one of tiic leading rubber works in 

 that country. 



The reports from the consuls as now published at 

 Washington are not excelled in any other country in point 

 of practical value, Init are being taken as a model, both 

 in character and in the method of bringing them out, by 

 other great powers. Our motive in writing this is not 

 boastful ; it is rather an attempt to increase the useful- 

 ness of these reports by helping to call the attention of 

 business men to them. Without doubt the large increase 

 in exports of American manufactures in recent \ears has 

 been due in an important degree to the definite informa- 

 tion regarding trade conditions abroad contained in tlie 

 consular reports. The circulation of such intelligence 

 Ins been widespread, since ijractically every newspaper 

 nowadays contains news matter directly traceable to the 

 work of the consuls. 



The cfficiencv of this service now promises to be dis- 



