October i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



21 



his energies to more profitable lines. He wants a fair return, and 

 the really big agent will be best satisfied with the connnission 

 that will not hamper the free distribution by increasing the sale 

 price. He wants a commission on all that comes into his terri- 

 tory, and rightly so, but make him agree to earn it all. Make 

 him turn in traveler's reports with shipping marks, and make 

 him agree to cover the ground at least a certain number of 

 times a year, and check him up as well as you can. Goods en- 

 tering the country after being sold into another country should 

 not be claimed upon, but if a New York buying house orders 

 goods to be shipped to a certain country, the shipping mark 

 being one reported by your agent, then he, is entitled to his com- 

 mission. Insist upon shipping marks being given by the buying 

 house, and thus know if your man has earned his percentage. 



Having sized up your situation and having had your final 

 draft of agreement signed by the party of the second part you 

 are so far on your way, but do not post home then. You will 

 notice I state "signed by the party of the second part." The 

 agreement is bona fide on the part of both, and you intend to 

 carry it out, but it is advisable to have it clearly understood when 

 the agreement is being discussed and drafted that final execution 

 rests with some one at home and that the instrument is to be 

 dated at your headquarters. A "power of attorney" to sign for 

 your company could easily have been obtained, but you are just 

 as well off without it. No business man is going to incur the 

 expense of your long business trip, size up the situation, and then 

 draw up an agreement that he or his confreres will throw out on 

 his home arrival, but two heads are generally better than one 

 and you may find out that you have neglected to cover some 

 point and this may be covered by correspondence at the time 

 of final signature. The place of final execution is important. 

 There are such things as disagreements and lawsuits. Have an 

 eye on the possibilities and place yourself as advantageously as 

 possible in case of misunderstandings. If you date your agree- 

 ment Tokio it may be liable to interpretation in a Japanese court 

 of law and you may be forced to attend in Japan at considerable 

 loss and inconvenience to yourself, if you wish to have at least 

 a look in. An agreement dated at your own town may shut ofif 

 what might otherwise be an unjust lawsuit. Likely your agent 

 is more keen to tie up with you than you may appear to be 

 with him. He may overlook what may appear to be minor 

 details, but because he is sloppy in his business methods is no 

 reason why you should be. 



Then to the pleasant occupation of filling tlie long felt want for 

 your goods. Even if it is a straight selling proposition to one 

 house do not sail away home with your substantial opening order. 

 Visit the more important business centers with your agents. 

 Open up, get him to make the entrees and then with him by your 

 side sell the goods. He gets the commission but he also drinks 

 in the rich vintage which has been ripened by you through the 

 years ; his thirst for knowledge is satisfied and he is stimulated 

 to follow in your wise footsteps. By the time half of your pro- 

 spective customers have kept their appointments and the other 

 half kept you cursing over their lack of appreciation of your 

 valuable time by forgetting to turn up, your agent will have all 

 your arguments noted, stored up and ready to be improved upon 

 when you have left. One of the heartbreaks for the man who 

 likes to send the orders in is to find that many of the largest 

 houses send all their orders through their London or New York 

 buying houses. Some houses even object to selling the goods, de- 

 pending on their buyers in the large manufacturing centers to 

 purchase to the best advantage in fulfillment of requisitions from 

 the local house. 



Judgment will tell you how long to spend on the territory. 

 Your agent, be he on commission or buying outright, will be 

 glad to have you spend a year with him, but by the time you have 

 visited the principal centers he and his individual travelers on the 

 different grounds will be posted on the merits of your lines and 

 have your arguments by heart, together with some new and 



perhaps better ones of their own, and then is the time to pack 

 up for home. 



You have accomplished your mission in the new field. Procure 

 a copy of the custom tariff and regulations, and then back to 

 where the staff are ready to tell you all about the good time you 

 have been having while they have been slaving away at the same 

 old grind. If you are at all receptive, the trip has tauglit you 

 more about your own line than you ever knew before. You have 

 learned a lot about other lines made elsewhere, and best of all 

 you have broadened out and learned new business methods which 

 may be put into practice with advantage. Then follow your 

 men up, give them a good long letter by each mail, take your 

 articles up by letter one at a time and keep your men refreshed 

 and enthusiastic. If you have several agents one form of letter 

 may do for them all, but keep after them. Write individuals 

 short personal letters. Let them feel there is a personality 

 thinking of them where the goods are made. Keep them fresh, 

 or much of your foreign effort will have been of no avail. Let 

 them know that you are following the sales closely. Your 

 traveling men like a pat on the back when they have "pulled off" 

 a good thing; so does the man on the other side of the world, 

 be he principal or employe. Send the buyers a Christmas card 

 in your own name. Above all, fill your orders promptly ; nd 

 carefully — answer correspondence by return of mail — and get the 

 sight drafts out with the documents. 



GUAYULE AREA OF MEXICO. 



nPHE problem of how long the natural supplies of guayule in 

 ■*• Mexico will last depends, for one thing, on how much 

 guayule land there is. Naturally. And who knows? The cen- 

 suses of most things in Mexico are not yet complete, as is indi- 

 cated by the fact that a geographical commission appointed to 

 map the towns of that republic reported recently the discovery 

 of 7,679 towns which were not officially known to exist. How, 

 then, should any one be expected to know how many square 

 miles are covered with the guayule shrub? Of course, all these 

 towns newly discovered by the government Of Diaz are not of 

 the importance of Oaxaca or Guanajuato, but all the same their 

 populations will not longer escape paying taxes. Speaking of 

 towns recalls the fact that when The India Rubber World 

 inquired, in regard to a certain guayule property, "What town 

 it was near?" the answer was: "That is hard to say; there are 

 a good many towns on the hacienda." One can see how easy it 

 would be for the haciendado, in fitting out his periodical tax 

 list, to forget to include all the towns on his property. The fact 

 is vthat there are yet many vast landed estates in Mexico, the 

 resources of which are revealed only when Americans or other 

 outsiders take an interest in their development, and not the 

 least of these are in the states located within the guayule zone. 

 The sole question, however, is not how much guayule country is 

 there to be worked, but how much of the unused shrub is yet 

 commercially convenient to the centers of the guayule rubber 

 industrv. 



INDIA-RUBBER GOODS IN COMMERCE. 



EXPORTS FROM THE tXlTITED STATES. 



/^FFICIAL statement of values of exports of manufactures of 

 ^-^ india-rubber and gutta-percha from the United States for 

 the month of July, 1908, and for the first seven months of three 

 years : 



Belting, Boots • .Ml 

 Packing, and other 



Months. and Hose. Shoes. Rubber. Total. 



July, 1908 $105,444 $208,319 $.106,099 $619,862 



January to June 608,681 448,014 1,814,046 2,870,741 



Total $714,125 $656,333 $2,r20,i45 $3,490,603 



Total, 1907 795.f)65 694,075 2,352,870 3,842,910 



Total, 1906 663,5,^6 615,154 1,803.572 3,082,202 



