March i, igog] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



NEW YORK 



BOTANICAL 



(JAKUbN. 



199 



Published on tho 1st of eaoh Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO., 



No. 395 BROADWAY. NEW YORK. 



CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD, NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 

 EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 

 ASSOCIATB. 



Vol. 39. 



MARCH I. 1909. 



No. 6. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE READING MATTER. 



SECRETARY STRAUS AND COMMERCE. 



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THE British practice in dealing with members of the 

 Government who may retire for any reason differs 

 from the American practice in that whereas the 

 Britisher is placed upon half pay fur the remainder of 

 his life, assuring him a few years of leisure, if he so elects, 

 an American cabinet minister upon leaving Washington 

 is most likely to be taken into a great financial or business 

 or legal organization — according as his governmental 

 work may have demonstrated his special capacity — often 

 at a compensation far beyond that paid bv any gov- 

 ernment. W'c have no comment to make in this connec- 

 tion, other than to suggest that the American jiracticc 

 proves a higher capacity of those who are called to the 

 public service than, perlia]>s, is appreciatccl bv vcr}' many 

 citizens. 



.At the moment we have in mind the head of the most 

 recently created position in the Washington "cabinet" — a 

 gentleman who, while distinguished as a scholar, a lawyer, 

 an autlmr, and a some time brilliant member of the coun- 

 try's diplomatic service, is, and has been all the while, 

 part of an important mercantile firm. This gentleman, 

 at least, upon laying down his official portfolio, will have 

 no financial reasons to consider seriously any proposals 

 which mav be made to him to become connected with a 



mu line of mone\- earning activity. But this latter fact 

 is no proof of his superiority in talent to other members 

 of the advisory board of the President now or in the 

 past. 



The fact is that it is becoming more widely recognized 

 in America, as it should be, that there is no more honor- 

 able profession than the public service, and it attracts men 

 of the highest talent, despite the machinations of those 

 whose ideal of politics is that a public trust is a fat "job." 

 The American office holder, now more than ever, is in- 

 stinct with the idea, not merely of earning a personal 

 reputation to be proud of, but of contributing to the na- 

 tional development which will |)ut his country upon the 

 highest possible plane. Xot that we can point to any 

 administration since the first year of the United States 

 government in which such sentiments did not prevail; 

 but to-day they are more widely diffused among the 

 public than ever before. 



Thr particular nienil)er of the Washington cabinet 

 already referred to has striven incessantly while in office 

 to bring into closer cooperation with the government the 

 organized or concentrated commercial thought and senti- 

 ment of the country, to the end that the Congress may 

 legislate with the fullest jjossible knowledge of the in- 

 terests to be affected by any proposed law. Since Rome 

 was not built in a day, it is possible that Mr. Secretary 

 Straus's plans may not crystallize completely during his 

 term of office, but we do not doubt that the newly organ- 

 ized National Council of Commerce — of which he is dis- 

 tinctly the father — will reach such a degree of usefulness 

 as to prove one of the most notable monuments that has 

 ever existed to the memory of an American statesman. 



RUBBER OVERPRODUCTION— AND "CAUCHO." 



WK take it that a gentleman so long interested and 

 to so large an extent in plantation companies — 

 tea, rubber and other — as Mr. Arthur I.ampard, would 

 ni)t have introduced in his address as chairman at the 

 recent meeting of shareholders of the United Serdang 

 (Sumatra) Rubber Plantatinns, Limited, the figures upon 

 which he based his remarks, without first having them 

 verified. Hence we are reproducing them here as pre- 

 sented by him, without looking up the authorities on the 

 subject, particularly as upon their face they seem to 

 agree with similar computations made from time to time, 

 fnr .somewh;a different periods, for The Ixdi.v RuBBl^R 

 World. 



The jioiiit (if Mr. I.amjjard's remarks was that the 

 jjriccs realized for crude rubber do not decrease with a 

 larger production. In other words, from the beginning 

 of the rubber industry, the consumption of the raw mate- 

 rial has increased at such a rate as constantly to put up 

 jirices, although every year, as a rule, has brought more 

 rubber to market than had been handled before. We may 

 summarize here Mr. Lampard's figures for the exports 



