September i, 1907.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



361 



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Vol. 36. 



SEPTEMBER I. 1907. 



No. 6. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE READING MATTER. 

 THE NEW RUBBER FACTORIES. 



rounding the factory. The extent of this particular 

 enterprise is indicated bj- the mention of the 800 em- 

 ployes of the estate who were present at the starting 

 of the factory. 



We have devoted considerable space already to 

 describing and illustrating some extensive rubber fac- 

 tories in Mexico, involving much ingenious and expen- 

 si\c machinery, and used for extracting rubber from 

 itic gua}'ule plant — a now valuable source of rubber 

 wliich was not commercially available before the in- 

 vention of these labor saving devices. The promoters 

 of the new Mexican enterprise are becoming interested 

 in the rubber resources of Central Africa, with the 

 idea of introducing the new mechanical processes 

 there. It need surprise no one to hear, within twenty 

 years from the date of Stanley's announcement of the 

 discovery of vast rubber resources on the upper 

 Congo, of the operation of large rubber factories there, 

 giving employment to natives of a type which, in 

 Stanley's time, was devoted mainly to the practice of 

 cannibalism. 



The rubber goods manufacturer to-day who wishes 

 cotton fabrics for use in his goods buys the product of 

 certain mills, strictly according to si)ccifications. He 

 may similarly, to a certain extent, buy crude rubber 

 from factories, according to specifications, and it per- 

 haps is not too much to predict that ultimately little 

 rubber will be bought in any other way. 



BELGIUM AND THE CONGO. 



T 



THE (|ucstion of the annexation of the Congo Free 

 State appears now to be under serious considera- 

 tion bv Belgium, and it is probable that this great 



HE term "rubber factory" is rapidly coining into 

 a new use, \\liich is interesting as indicating a 

 new development in connection with rubber in- 

 terests. Similarly a new class of ''rubber machinery" 

 has lately come into existence. \\c refer to the plant African rubber region will cease soon to be the private 

 used, under modern conditions, in the preparation of possession of Leopold. It is hardly snpposable. how- 

 crude rubber for the market, in substitution for the ever, that he is to make a free gift of it to his country. 

 hand labor w^iicb formerly embraced all the processes or that he will retire wdiolly from the rubber trade. 

 applied to rubber before ii reached the mills where Xo doubt the agitation over Leopold's administration 

 commercial rubber goods are fabricated. The new of Congo alYairs has been prompted in part by the 

 rubber factory and the new rubber machinery in no monopoly in trading that has prevailed there, and the 

 sense give to the raw material any of the properties Congo as a Belgian colony might afford a freer field to 

 of being "manufactured," in the ordinary sense of the outsiders than now exists. 



word— they only serve to prepare the raw material in But what would be the real effect upon the "red 



a better manner and more economically than under the rubber" business? Will any change of political con- 

 old regime. 



A newspaper that reaches us from the Far East 

 prints as a matter of course an accnuut of the inaugu- 

 ration of a new "rubber factory" in its locality, attend- 

 ed by a certain amount of ceremony, in the presence 



trol render the natives more willing collectors of 

 rubber? The English and American friends of what 

 they term Leopold's slaves complain that the latter 

 are forced against their will to work, and it would be 

 strange if his abdication as ruler should make the 



of the leading citizens and their families, followed by natives more industrious. Or it is alleged that the 



refreshments and speechmaking. The compliment large profits of the trading companies are due to the 



was paid to some one of being selected to start the meager payment made for the rubber. Would traders 



20 HP. engine which is to supply the power for the of other nationalities be so indifferent to profits as to 



various washers, presses, and the like, used for quickly sacrifice dividends to making the Congolese rich? 

 and cheaply converting into merchantable rubber the The Congo question is interesting from many points 



.latex gathered from the planted rubber trees sur- 



of 



but anv change of control is likely to be 



e^ 



