November i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



55 



I 



(f>6 ii^r '4 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



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HENRY C. PEARSON, 



EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 

 ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 39. 



NOVEMBER I. 1908. 



No. 2. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE READING MATTER. 



POLITICS— AND BUSINESS. 



THE near approach 3f the American presidcntal elec- 

 tion — the date is November 3 — does not tempt 

 The India Rubber Would to indulge in any forecast 

 of the result, although we do not doubt our capacity 

 as prophets equally with most of those who are doing 

 business in this line. The fact is that the era has gone 

 by when "the country" was ".saved" or "lost" as the 

 result of a national election. The same people stay on 

 the same soil, occupied in the same pursuits ; the laws 

 remain practically the same even in the event of a com- 

 plete change of party control, and back of all remain the 

 same constitution and the same flag. What need, then, 

 of a scare, when Americans start out to discharge the 

 periodical obligation of designating a new occupant of 

 the White House? 



There is reason for discussing business conditions in 

 America, however, regardless of political conditions at 

 this time. The latter we may dismiss with the general 

 C5 statement that the 1908 campaign has been exceptionally 

 2? brief, and that the contending parties in the contest 

 have, so far as we have been able to see, outlined no 

 issues. No matter who may be chosen president, he has 

 no power to make or unmake the laws of the country, 

 and the composition of the national legislature is changed 

 slowly and conservatively. 



But what about business? Just a year ago The India 

 RuiiBEK Would was chronicling the decision of the lead- 

 ing rubber manufacturers to limit production for an in- 

 definite period to the absolute demands of trade ; in 

 other words, to invest no money in making goods for 

 "stocking up." We are of the opinion that the decision 

 was wise. Suppose that a score of tire manufacturers, 

 each maintaining a branch house in every important 

 center between the Atlantic and Pacific, are each trying 

 to make all the tires that the 150,000 American auto- 

 mf)bilists may require. Is it good business? Is stock- 

 ing u[) the branch houses meeting a demand? Does the 

 volume of manufacture involve a measure of profits? 



I'ortunately, we think, the bankers of the manufac- 

 turers we have reference to — and the same thing was 

 true in other lines than tires — advised a curtailment of 

 activity, with the result of a marked decrease, for a 

 while, in the production of rubber goods. Likewise, 

 less rubber used, and lower prices for rubber. 



The lower prices for rubber are now ancient history, 

 which is pretty good evidence that the rubber manu- 

 facturers have been obliged to get busy again, in order 

 to meet a normal demand for goods which can be sup- 

 plied no longer from store. All of this has happened in 

 advance of the presidential election, for wdiich reason 

 we may indulge the suggestion that, no matter how the 

 election may result on November 3, the victorious party 

 cannot well claim credit for the revival of business that, 

 undoubtedly, is now developing. 



RUBBER PLANTING TO DATE. 



THE International Rubber Exhibition held recently 

 in London was, first of all, a notable demonstra- 

 tion of the success of rubber culture. It seems 

 hardly longer ago than yesterday when intelligent 

 business men were discussing such questions as 

 whether rubber trees could be grown from planted 

 seeds, whether cultivated trees would produce rubber, 

 or whether the product of such trees could be obtained 

 at a profit. Already these basic questions have been 

 answered in the affirmative so effectively that con- 

 servative owners of capital now have more than a 

 hundred millions of dollars invested in rubber culture, 

 with the result that many hundreds of square miles 

 of land have been covered permanently with forests 

 of the most valuable rubber yielding species. 



.Simply as an achievement in creating forests, the 

 work of the rubber planters already has proved one 

 of the most notable results of human endeavor. But 

 what has been accomplished is not merely interesting 

 by reason of its novelty and its magnitude ; the result 

 promises to be of untold benefit to the world, besides 

 yielding handsome profits to many of those whose 

 capital has been invested in this work. 



The amount of plantation rubber that has been 

 marketed to date is well worth consideration. During 



