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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December i, 1908. 



Tlio rubber business is the most complex in the 

 world. The production of the raw material is as yet 

 practically uncontrolled, and no man can tell what 

 to-morrow's demand may be. To the speculatively in- 

 clined, rubber always proved attractive ; but the sober 

 minded manufacturer should look twice before being 

 convinced that the era of high priced rubber is over. 



"VALORIZATION" OF RUBBER. 



IT is interesting to see the commercial association of 

 Manaos, through their official Rci'ista, strongly op- 

 posing the "valorization" of rubber, which is only 

 another term for the official intervention of the govern- 

 ment to maintain the selling prices of this product. The 

 valorization of coffee has been undertaken by the Brazil- 

 ian states in which this commodity is chiefly grown, but 

 with what result is yet a moot question, both in Brazil 

 and in the principal foreign coflfee markets. 



Our Manaos contemporary, without stopping to men- 

 tion coffee, takes strong ground, in an article reproduced 

 on another page, against the principle of seeking to raise 

 prices artificially, since they thus become less stable than 

 when regulated alone by supply and demand. The higher 

 prices may be raised by artificial means, the greater will 

 be the fall when comes the inevitable swing of the pendu- 

 lum in the other direction. This reasoning is not men- 

 tioned here as being new in principle, but because it is 

 encouraging to see it adopted by the leading merchants 

 of the state ranking first in the production of rubber. 



Tlie consumers of rubber in Europe and America are 

 concerned more about stability of prices than whether 

 they are high and low, and naturally would view with 

 disfavor any new element liable at any time to create 

 violent fluctuations. The Rcvista makes some apparently 

 practical suggestions along the line of diversified labor, 

 by which the rubber gathering states would do more to 

 feed their own population, and changes in the fiscal policy 

 to reduce the cost of living. Rubber might then lie pro- 

 duced at a better local profit than now without neces- 

 sarily fetching higher prices ; furthermore, every rise in 

 prices for Para rubber tends to encourage rubber pro- 

 duction elsewhere and to bring into existence more rub- 

 ber than is needed, with a consequent new decline. 



We are not hopeful, however, of seeing soon any 

 tendency of the rubber states authorities to reduce 

 the burdens of taxation. Never too well sujiplied with 

 cash, the state governments in the rubber zone show 

 signs just now of being unusually pressed for cash, fol- 

 lowing last year's slump in the rubber market and the 

 smaller receipts from export centers. Just now, indeed, 

 it appears that the Para state government is dealing with 

 a syndicate proposition, the object of which would seem 

 to be to add something to the public revenues, whatever 

 other effect it may have. It may be that, ten years 

 hence, when more plantations have become produc- 

 tive, some of these conditions may be changed. 



Now THAT CRUDE RUBBER HAS SUDDENLY INCREASED IN PRICE, 



the alert individual who places "blanket orders" comes gaily to 

 the front. He fills the traveling salesman full of enthusiasm with 

 his orders for quantities of goods for future delivery, based on 

 low rubber, which goods he may take or not, as he sees fit, 

 and sometimes a careless manufacturer is foolish enough to 

 agree to fill these orders. 

 "Heads I win, tails you lose." 



There is no particular satisfaction in being a prophet, 

 because when prophecies come true it is not good form to say: 

 "I told you so." Prophecy is its own reward, and even if one 

 can see what it is coming to, or thinks he can, it is well to 

 avoid it. Nevertheless, here goes for prophecy: No one has 

 claimed that Brazil would ever furnish a rubber so uniform that 

 it would be the standard by which all others would be valued. 

 Conditions are not favorable for such production. It looks very 

 much, however, as if Ceylon would be able in the near future 

 to produce a rubber that shall be the acknowledged unit of 

 value, and this from the practical conscientious work of the 

 government scientists, who since the first seedlings were put in 

 at Heneratgoda, have kept this goal in view. 



Those energetic optimists who believe that the United States 

 should have an International Rubber Exhibition, and that it 

 should be held in New York, will be pained to learn that Madi- 

 son Square Garden may soon be torn down and upon its site a 

 great office building erected, and further that the Grand Central 

 Palace is to be demolished to make room for railroad offices. As 

 there are no other great halls in which such an exhibition could 

 be held, the project is not likely to get beyond the stage of 

 wishful suggestion. 



About the most conspicuous advertisement in a new maga- 

 zine devoted to the aeronautic interest is that of a firm selling 

 grass seeds. It is not so illogical as might appear at first 

 thought. Who wouldn't, after having gone up in a flying ma- 

 chine, rather fall upon a well-kept lawn than into the sea, which 

 has been the destination of so many aeronauts of late? 



How recent is the. origin of the rubber industry is sug- 

 gested by the fact that a manufacturer of machinery employed 

 in it to an important extent, and whose death during the past 

 month is reported on another page, took part as an expert in 

 the production of one of the first, if not the first, railway loco- 

 motives made in America. Yet many persons to-day doubtless 

 think of the beginnings of the railroad as something enwrapped 

 in ancient history. It may be mentioned further that Mr. Royle's 

 work in the locomotive shops antedated Goodyear's rubber vul- 

 canization patent by seven years I In other words, contempo- 

 raries of Charles Goodyear, in the days of his principal activity 

 in rubber, are still alive — some of them, in fact, are still devoting 

 daily attention to the details of important rubber manufacturing 

 companies. 



We doubt whether one business man in a thousand knows 

 how interesting and valuable a publication is the monthly 

 Bulletin issued from the International Bureau of the American 

 Republics at Washington. The business element of the United 

 States never has had great reason to be proud of the extent of 

 its trade with South America, but now that the public has become 

 better informed regarding the Southern republics through such 

 events as the visits to their capitals by Mr. Root, the American 

 Secretary of State, and by the American fleet on its tour of the 

 world, it seems likely that a wider interest in these republican 

 neighbors of ours will prevail in business circles. We know of 

 no better medium for keeping informed in this respect than by 

 reading this monthly Bulletin, which is as attractive as any other 

 inagazine published, and among the most interesting periodicals 



