206 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 



1909. 



appointing vegetable product, the arts and industries found 

 thousands of undreamed of uses for the new product. New fac- 

 tories started, old ones enlarged, markets expanded until to-day 

 such large industrial organizations as Charles Macintosh & Co., 

 AVilliam Warne & Co., The North British Rubber Co., and scores 

 of others attest the greatness of the British rubber industry. 



For a long time the British rubber manufacturers were content 

 to depend upon the wild sources of rubber for their constantly 

 increasing supplies. With their great merchant marine, rubber 

 for the manufacturers of the world was brought to London and 

 Liverpool, and they were the world's brokers in the commodity. 

 Their operations in the Amazonian port, where most of the 

 rubber and the best came from, were very large. There came a 

 time, however, when Germany, grown strong commercially, 

 fought for supremacy in that field, established banks, subsidized 

 steamship lines, and sent trained men who explored every river 

 and set back to headquarters voluminous reports on everything 

 pertaining to rubber. No doubt both of these great powers often 

 considered the outcome could they but control the vast forest 

 areas from which the rubber came. 



It was just here, however, that the commercial imagination of 

 the Englishmen, trained to grapple with great world problems 

 and tropical enterprises, shone forth most brilliantly. It was 

 rubber they wanted, not more territory, and with a change of 

 base that was masterly they shifted from the Amazon to tlieir 

 own great possessions in the Far F.ast. Here they established 

 a base with soil and climate just right. With the cheapest and 

 most abundant labor at their doors, they chose a position appar- 

 ently impregnable, where the battle of supremacy in crude rub- 

 ber is to be fought and won. 



To-day there flourish in these regions more "Para" rubber 

 trees than are tapped to supply the annual Amazonian crop. 

 Already, although the plantations are young, they produce one- 

 seventeenth as much as come down the mighty South American 

 river. Five or ten years from now, with these great plantations 

 in full bearing, together with others being installed, it would 

 seem that the fine Para rubber of the world's market will be 

 grown on British soil, and be the result of British progressive- 



ness and forethought. 



* * * 



Mr. Elston E. W.\dekook, the president of the Victorian Club, 

 who occupied the chair, proved himself a rarely happy and 

 capable presiding officer. .\t the conclusion of the lecture he 

 briefly sketched rubber trade conditions the world over, and 

 added some interesting personal experiences in the Amazon 

 country, where he spent several years. Mr. Wadbrook, by the 

 way, is engaged in an important way in the crude rubber trade. 



RUBBER IN HUNTING CLOTHING. 



THE making of hunting clothing in the United States has 

 become a very important line of business, to which some 

 large houses are now devoted exclusively. Not only is the 

 home demand for these goods on the increase, but American 

 hunting goods are now exported to Mexico, Canada, Japan. 

 Great Britain, Holland, South Africa and elsewhere. An ex- 

 tensive concern in this line is the Upthegrove Sporting Goods 

 Co. (Valparaiso, Indiana), whose president, Mr. Jesse E. Foust, 

 in commenting on waterproof clothing in general, had the fol- 

 lowing to say [according to The S/>orling Goods Dealer] : 



"Some concerns claim to make a waterproof material by 

 taking any kind of light cloth and subjecting it to a patent coating 

 process, but it can't be done. It is impossible to treat cloth in 

 that manner and make it rain proof. No coat will be water- 

 proof that docs not have rubber in it. No other material can be 

 used to take the place of the rubber, and to be waterproof the 

 material must have the proper weight and thickness. To get all 

 this without producing a stiff, unwieldy material is not easy, 

 but we succeeded with our rubber cemented cloth." 



R. M. HOWISON. 



"T^IIERE arc many Americans in London, and many American 

 ■*■ firms represented both by Americans and Englishmen. 

 It is not often, however, that one man represents half a dozen 

 good concerns, five of which are rubber manufacturers. The firm 

 of Howison & Co., Limited, which is very largely R. M. Howison, 

 and is particularly in evidence at London's industrial exhibitions, 

 represent in rubber the Pennsylvania Rubber Co., Davol Rubber 

 Co., Seamless Rubber Co., Faultless Rubber Co., and Morgan & 

 Wright. 



The man who lias rounded up these concerns and who 



markets their 

 goods so success- 

 fully was born in 

 Darlington, Eng- 

 land, the son of a 

 physician of the 

 old school. He 

 believed in laying 

 the foundation of 

 a career by hard 

 work poorly paid, 

 and so put his boy 

 at an early age as 

 apprentice to a 

 firm of merchants 

 in Dundee, Scot- 

 land, at a salary 

 of $50 a year. The 

 hours were long 

 and the work 

 hard, but young 

 Howison was am- 

 bitious and the 

 first day of his 

 fourth year the 

 firm complimented 

 him, took a year off his time, and made him a junior clerk at $200 

 a year. Hard work and overtraining, however, had affected the 

 youngster's health, and he was ordered on a voyage to Australia, 

 the firm paying for his passage. One hundred and four days on 

 a sailing vessel landed him in Melbourne in perfect health. He 

 found a position at once in a metal importer and government con- 

 tractor's office in Sydney and a month later was promoted to the 

 business management of their works. A little over a year later 

 he was made assistant paymaster on a large railroad construction 

 contract. 



When this contract was finished he decided to go back to 

 England and started in London in Mincing lane as market clerk, 

 handling coffee, sugar, spices, and rubber. Then he secured for 

 his firm the London agency for Messrs. Sgal & Co. Two years 

 later he returned to Sydney, built up a business in engineers' sup- 

 plies which he sold out, and returned to Liverpool as manager 

 for Sgal & Co. In 1895 Mr. Howison came to the United States 

 and opened an office on Kilby street, Boston, representing Sgal & 

 Co. in the sale of crude rubber. In 1897 he took a position as 

 purchaser of rubber for the Hartford Rubber Works Co. At the 

 end of that year he was appointed managing director of the 

 Single Tube Tire Co., London, which controlled for Europe the 

 bicycle tire interests of the Hartford Rubber Works Co., The 

 B. F. Goodrich Co., and the Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Co. 

 The Single Tube Tire Co. eventually came into the posses- 

 sion of The B. F. Goodrich Co., with Mr. Howison as European 

 manager for that and all of their goods. In 1901 Mr. Howison 

 started in business for himself as wholesale merchant and im- 

 porter of Atnerican goods. Since then his business has largely 

 increased. He has visited the United States 16 times, and he is 

 perhaps as well known as any general marketer of rubber goods. 



R. M. Howison. 



