December i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



105 



Asia. But in proportion as prices rose, many manufacturing 

 industries become unproductive, and to make them pay they had 

 to procure a substitute for the more expensive article. This 

 was found, in the first place, in "reclaimed rubber," which is 

 the rubber taken from worn-out manufactured articles. Spe- 

 cial works have been erected for and large capitals are invested 

 exclusively in this business. At the same time, search was 

 made for other gummiferous plants, among which we will men- 

 tion the most important, known as "guayule," a shrub found in 

 Mexico and the south of the United States. Large companies 

 were formed, and within a few years the output from this source 

 had reached 5,000,000 kilos per annum, which was sold at a low 

 price, owing to its inferior quality, but which all the same gave 

 splendid returns to the companies exploiting it. 



The exploration of "mangabeira" and "mani<;oba" in Brazil 

 was given fresh impulse. In Africa and Central America the 

 search for all kinds of trees, shrubs and plants was pushed with 

 vigor, and inferior qualities were obtained, but without doubt 

 more applicable to the manufacture of cheap articles, which 

 could not have been made at a profit with our expensive rubber. 



Thus gradually the manufacturing industries became free of 

 their absolute dependence on our rubber. The latter continued 

 to be exclusively used by such industries as could not do with- 

 out it, the principal one among these being the manufacturing of 

 tires for automobiles. 



The number of its consumers being thus reduced, it had to 

 feel strongly the fate of the former. When the tire industry 

 suffered a shock similar to that of the tires for bicycles, our 

 rubber increase had also to be shaken in the same'manner. The 

 principal consumer disappeared. The others were already lost 

 through the high price of our rubber. With the remaining con- 

 sumers our rubber had to keep up the competition, created by 

 itself in the Asiatic plantations. 



Meanwhile, and our production continuing unchanged, an 

 accumulation of stock became inevitable, and this could only be 

 levelled by a fall in prices to a figure low enough for us to regain 

 the positions lost to its inferior competitors. 



Then speculation took advantage of this state of things, and 

 fostered an exaggerated drop of our rubber, which, however. 

 among all the evils it brought home to us, had the effect of 

 killing many competitors and of reducing others. 



Our rubber, by its low price, regained the position in the dif- 

 ferent industries that it had held before, and by that means the 

 demand increased considerably, until the visible stock on March 

 I, 1908, reached 7,113 tons, against 4,166 tons in 1907, and the 

 figures on September i showed only 3,350 tons, against 2,915 tons 

 the previous year. 



Our rubber had, therefore, returned to its normal position, 

 and on no account should this be altered by artificial means, 

 always injurious in the end, and which benefit only a few, to the 

 detriment of many. 



Naturally, every article is subject to fluctuations. To wish 

 to avoid that these take place in any violent form is quite praise- 

 worthy ; but when the commodity has already touched a sterling 

 and reasonable price, it is foolish to attempt to enhance its 

 value artificially, or to encourage a speculation that can end only 

 in disaster. 



\Ve should rejoice to see the price of our rubber go up and be 

 maintained at a paying level ; but we must wish this as the result 

 of a larger demand and the superiority of its quality, which 

 means safety, and not as the result of a speculation, which 

 spells danger. 



We are facing the question purely from the viewpoint of the 

 sterling value of the product, which is the standard foundation 

 of its intrinsic work in relation to its competitors everywhere. 

 If the equivalent of this sterling value in our currency does not 

 compensate for the extraction, or that, on account of present 

 prices the subject is open to question, then we must take steps 

 to cheapen the cost of our production. 



But, if we agree that present prices compensate the cost of 

 production and yield reasonable profits, we must not on that ac- 

 count neglect the future, but bear always in mind the lessons of 

 the past. 



The price of 4^. or more for our rubber stimulates the 

 production of its competitors everywhere, and sooner or later 

 this quotation will be unable to hold. 



We do not agree with those who noisily proclaim that rubber 

 can be sold on the cultivated plantations at a profit for is. bd, 

 or 2s. The estimates shown to us always omit the important item 

 of the enormous interest absorbed by the overcapitalization of 

 companies, and do not take into account the question of labor, 

 which is already occupying the serious attention of the managers 

 of large plantations, and the cost of which, with the rapid de- 

 velopment of the plantations themselves, will certainly increase. 

 But what is sure is that the price of 3s., even discounting all un- 

 favorable factors, will return to the planter a fairly remunera- 

 tive profit. 



Therefore we must make ready for the fight that unfortunately 

 has to come, by fitting ourselves in good time. The course does 

 not lie in a forced and fatally ephemeral valorization of the 

 product, but in reducing the cost of manufacture and in the pres- 

 ervation of its" superior quality, by careful manipulation. 



In these two factors we see the true salvation and the future 

 of Amazonia, and how to attain this end has been one of the 

 principal concerns of this Review. Many projects have been 

 proposed. 



For the first, reduction of freights, production of things essen- 

 tial to the existence of the seringueiro himself, by encouraging 

 him to plant manioc, maize, rice, beans, so as to keep him em- 

 ployed cultivating the land during the time that he cannot 

 devote to extracting rubber. 



Reduction of export duties. 



Reduction of import duties on the necessaries of life, so long 

 as we cannot produce them here, or that the output of them in 

 the south of the country is insufficient, or comes so dear here or 

 with such little difference in cost from the foreign article, sur- 

 charged with duties, it is true but nearly always superior. 



Rubber plantations in accessible localities and rationally made, 

 in order to obtain better results from the labor, which is known 

 to cost high amongst us. 



To the second factor we have periodically called the atten- 

 tion of the planters by means of circulars, and we will not rest 

 in the performance of our task. 



For the solution of both problems, we again earnestly solicit 

 the assistance of all our colleagues, and of every one to whom 

 the progress and the future of this region are dear. 



It is by this means that we must endeavor to guarantee the 

 results of our rubber production, not by artificial and fantastic 

 e.xpedients. Therein lies the true valorization of our rubber. 



RUBBER HUNTERS FIND GOLD. 



THE newspapers report that Mr. R. Dorsey Mohun, the Ameri- 

 can leader of the American-Belgian expedition into the 

 lower Congo region, has intimated the discovery of rich prod- 

 ucts of gold, tin and copper in the Manyema district. The in- 

 terests with which Mr. Mohun and his party are concerned 

 include the .\nierican Congo Co. and La Societe Internationale 

 Foresticre et Miifiere du Congo. [See The Indi.\ Ritbbek 

 World, January i, 1907 — page 106.] These companies hold the 

 concessions in connection with which the names of Thomas F. 

 Ryan, of New York, and the Guggenheim mining interests of 

 the United States have been mentioned prominently, and allied 

 with which are the Continental Rubber Co. In 1905 King Leo- 

 pold appointed Mr. Mohun, who had at one time been the United 

 States commercial agent in the Congo Free State, a director in 

 the Societe .\B1R. and he has had an exceptional opportunity 

 for becoming familiar with conditions in the Congo Free State. 



