July i, 1907,] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



299 



factory so loiiy as u ])aid $1.25 for rubber; ii it produced 

 the raw material at 25 cents it would be different. 



Ultimately it will be in the natural order of things for 

 a French or an English or an American rubber factory to 

 produce its own rubber, just as it is to-day for one of 

 these factories to make the cartons in which its products 

 are packed for the market. So long as the raw material 

 was drawn from the .Amazon or from West .\frica such 

 a plan might have been impracticable, but that was before 

 the days of systematic rubber production. 



THE QUESTION OF COMPOUNDS. 



EVERYBODY must know by this time that rubber 

 goods are not made of rubber alone. Even the 

 common garden automobilist understands that his high 

 priced tires contain some kind of fabric, in connection 

 with the rubber, to give strength to the pneumatic band- 

 age of his wheels. .And it is not so many years, measured 

 by the average lifetime, that rubber belting and such like 

 goods were advertised as "combination'" goods, having 

 reference to the cotton fiber which was embraced in order 

 to provide the necessary element of strength. All of 

 which prepares the public mind for the idea that rubber 

 goods of whatever sort are "compounded" — whether 

 with vegetable fibers, to add strength, or with mineral 

 matters, to give the rubber, as in a tire tread, greater 

 wearing capacity, and so on. 



But what we iv iw have in mind is not so nuich what 

 the public have in mind — the public that in the end pas- 

 upon the whole question in hand, since the public ulti- 

 mately pay the bills — but the question more intimately 

 connected with the rubber factory itself. So many vol- 

 umes of this or that rubber, as it comes from the crude 

 rubber seller, and so many of the chemicals or drugs, 

 whatever they may be called by the compounder, will 

 produce, according to the rules of the trade, certain re- 

 sults. The question is whether the difference in the re- 

 sults justified the great number of different compounds 

 or mixtures now shown on the books of many manufac- 

 turing concerns. 



An order for a certain quantity of certain goods at a 

 certain price calls, automatically, as things are now ar- 

 ranged, for a certain "mixture" of raw materials, which 

 may be well enough if the run on this particular com- 

 pound is to be long continued. But this is not always 

 the case. May it not happen that, everything considered, 

 the change from a high grade rubber to a lower grade to 

 fill a particular order, if the total sum involved is not 

 great, will mean more in costs than to keep the original 

 compound in hand? 



The tendency undoubtedly in America is to follow the 

 European practice of producing a great variety of rubber 

 goods under one management, and without any idea of 

 inviting any comparison between American and foreign 

 methods, we may suggest the propriety of considering 

 whether it is necessary, every time a new order is booked, 

 that a new requisition should be made upon the com- 



pound room. When an "African" rubber meant, in 

 the usual order of things, an unspeakable material worth 

 only one-fourth or one-third the price of the lowest grade 

 Para, there may have been reason for the utmost care 

 that Para and African rubbers be kept apart in the com- 

 pound rooms. But to-day science has taught us that, 

 within definable limits, rubber is rubber, and it is not so 

 much the origin of the raw material as the intelligence 

 and skill and honesty of the fabricator that counts, 

 whether rubber from one part of the world or another is 

 used. Without mentioning countries, we dn know of 

 manufacturers who have made fortunes through the use 

 of a particular grade of raw rubber before its merits 

 became generally known, simply through recognizing the 

 value of a gum for its own sake, instead of measuring it 

 by the reputation attaching generally to a rubber from .1 

 given quarter. 



\^'hat we are leading up to is the idea of accepting rub- 

 bers by their merits, whether from America or Africa or 

 Asia, without reference to what may have been the ex 

 perience of a given factory with particular rubbers in ih: 

 past, and ceasing to try to attract trade by the use o^ 

 such old catch words as "Para"' and the like. 



Let the established rubber manufacturer stand u|io:i 

 his reputation for supplying goods of a quality that he 

 can guarantee. What more has he ever done? The 

 public is not concerned about the source of the raw ma- 

 terial. To the public Para means no more than Lopori, 

 or Ikelemba or Ceylon. And as for newly started com- 

 panies, they can do no more than in the past — offer goods 

 that will compare favorably with the older concerns in 

 the trade. If they make good their claims they will suc- 

 ceed ; if not they will soon drop out of the game. 



The prolonxed winter that cheered the rubber footwear 

 trade may be remembered later with less pleasure if, as now 

 seems probable, its effect should be seen in a reduced cotton 

 crop and correspondingly higher prices next season for the cot- 

 ton fabrics without which no rubber shoe is complete. 



The prices of rubber scrap show no tendency to decline in 

 keeping with the fall in the crude rubber market, which is re- 

 newed confirmation of the theory that the two classes of rubber 

 are largely independent of each other. It would appear that, 

 with a larger productive capacity than ever before, the rubber 

 reclaimers are behindhand in the matter of filling orders for 

 their products, in view of which fact it is natural that waste 

 rubber is not going begging for buyers. 



Cycling is not dead by a great deal, but only experienced a 

 case of "suspended animation." The mere fact that important 

 rubber factories are putting out bicycle tire catalogues again, 

 after having stopped their issue for a few years, is evidence of 

 returning activity in the trade. 



The new tariff arrangement with Germany will specifically 

 affect the rubber trade ; at least various items of rubber goods 

 appear in the lists under consideration between Washington and 

 Berlin. We have no time or space here to analyze the new cus- 

 toms schedules, but on the theory that history repeats itself, it is 

 safe to count on our German friends in rubber selling us as 

 much as usual, if not more, regardless of tariff regulations. 



