362 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September i, 1907. 



theoretical rather than practical, for a good while to 

 come, so far as its effect upon the rubber situation is 

 concerned. 



A LIBEL ON RUBBER TIRES. 



O.XLi hears now and then a suggestion, tor instance, 

 that manufacturers are not producing the best 

 pneumatic tires possible, preferring rather not to have 

 their products last too long, as this would interfere 

 with the sale of more goods. To hear such a suggestion 

 from an outsider is not so surprising, for there always 

 have been people ready to take the most unfavorable view 

 of anv situation or question imaginable, but this expres- 

 sion in regard to tires nia\ he heard even in rubber trade 

 circles, which is surprising. 



There are innumerable reasons why the majority of 

 tire manufacturers should endeavor to make the best 

 tires possible. First, it is the only honest course ; hon- 

 esty is essential to building up a permanent and growing 

 business, and we take it that the makers of rubber tires, 

 as a class, are as desirous of a lasting success as anv 

 other line of manufacturers. 



It would be particularly foolish to turn out inferior 

 automobile tires, because the risks involved in the use of 

 poor tires are so great, and the identity of a tire maker 

 usuallv so clear, that the reputation of a manufacturer in 

 this line is in constant danger if he should sell products 

 below the standard. It is not even safe to sell rotten 

 rubber bands or hot water bags that will not hold water, 

 but several lives may be at risk every time an inferior 

 tire is used, and a fatality from such a cause may be ad- 

 vertised throughout the world. 



On the contrary, there are special reasons, apart from 

 those suggested above, why rubber men should make the 

 best tires possible. The financial rewards possible are 

 higher than in most lines of rubber manufacture. .A man 

 who mav be carrying hundreds of thousands in life in- 

 surance, who is in the habit of paying for the best of 

 evervthing. not questioning the price of an automobile, 

 would hardly object to any figure named as the cost of a 

 set of tires. Here is a most exceptional field for the 

 rubber man to distinguish himself in. in turning out the 

 best goods that he and his working staff are capable of 

 producing. 



So much for theory. What is the practice? In the 

 case of every widely advertised automobile event the 

 names of the makers of the tires used are given the 

 utmost publicity — by the makers themselves. Rubber 

 manufacturers exert themselves to the utmost, regardless 

 of cost, to turn out tires that shall in each case excel any 

 competing product. They have contributed in no small 

 degree to the cost of automobile com]3etitions. and these 

 contests, on the other hand, have done much for the tire 

 industry in pointing out to makers wherein their products 

 could be improved. 



We are not readv to believe that anv tire maker on the 



globe is conducting his business on the principle that it is 

 better to sell two poor tires than one good one, or that 

 inferior tires are purposely produced in order to lessen 

 the intervals between sales. If proofs of such practice 

 are available in any quarter they are desired in this office 

 and will receive careful and impartial investigation. 



We have heard somewhat similar criticisms of the 

 rubber footwear trade, .\bout once in so often one sees 

 in the newspapers the suggestion that rubber shoes do 

 not begin to have as much rubber in them as formerly. 

 .\ny such idea is clearly refuted by the unmistakable evi- 

 dence at hand as to the amount and the quality of the 

 crude rubber bought and used by the rubber shoe indus- 

 try, and this at prices two and three times as high as the 

 cost of raw material in the good old times. 



THE GOOD OLD WORD "RUBBER." 



THE name "rubber" as a designation for a certain 

 material with which our readers are presumed to be 

 familiar may be without high scientific warrant, but 

 it has the merit of priority among English speaking peo- 

 ples, and this fact alone has led to its use becoming more 

 widespread than "caoutchouc" or any other term, whether 

 more scientific or otherwise. The English designation 

 "rubber," as our readers know, referred to a rubber-out 

 of pencil marks before any one thought of the word 

 "eraser," and while some other uses of the elastic ma- 

 terial have become more extensive since Priestley's time, 

 the name sticks ; it is fairly well understood, it serves its 

 purpose, it is easy to write and speak, and the average 

 man is too busy to consider a new name from any such 

 consideration as that it may be more accurate or more 

 fully descriptive. 



The French designation "caoutchouc," based upon a 

 native Indian name up the Amazon, is older. And the 

 Germans to a degree have borrowed the French name, 

 but they also use "gummi" to a great extent. To-day 

 "caoutchouc" is nowhere a word in common use in a 

 rubber producing region except the limited areas under 

 French or German control, and then only by supervisors 

 and not by native workers. The word is in use in French 

 rubber mills and to a slighter extent in the German. 

 Compared with this usage the universal adoption of 

 "rubber" wherever English speaking peoples have to do 

 with the production or consumption of the material, gives 

 this work a vastly greater vogue. 



We notice that Continental firms introducing their 

 products into English communities adapt the names of 

 their firms to English practice by taking up the word 

 "rubber." while English firms trading abroad are less 

 apt to follow a corresponding course. Englishmen have 

 been first to introduce rubber goods in many parts of the 

 world, as later they have been first to establish rubber 

 planting on a practical basis, and the persistence of the 

 names of the English (including American) companies 

 alone seems likely to render the word "rubber" ulti- 

 mately the most widely used term. 



