Apkil I, igog.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



233 





ix-"^- fci/r' 



Published on tbo 1st of each Uonth by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO., 



No. 395 BROADWAY. NEW YORK. 

 CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD, NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 

 EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 

 ASSOCIATB. 



Vol. 40. 



APRIL I, 1909. 



Nc 



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COPTRIOHT. 1909, BY 



THE INDIA RUBBER PVBLIBHINO CO. 



Entered at New York postofflce as mall matter of the second class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE READING MATTER. 



BUSINESS AND THE TARIFF. 



THM tariff qiic.-^tiDn again has been brought promi- 

 nently to public notice through the calling of an 

 extraordinary session of the L^nited States congress 

 for its consideration. The last general election revealed 

 a popular demand for a revision of the existing schedules, 

 but not to the extent of showing just what was wanted. 

 I'resident Taft deserves commendation for the prompt- 

 ness with which he has moved to bring the question to 

 a head, and it is no less commendable that the opposing 

 parties which make up the membership of the national 

 legislature have agreed to sink partisan difTerences on 

 other scores, in order to get out of the way as speedily as 

 possible the obstacle to business activity which pending 

 tariff legislation always causes. 



Even if no change in principle is involved, it becomes 



necessary now and then to revise tariff schedules, and the 



last revision dates back twelve years. But apart from 



this, the business depression which has been experienced 



Q.^ throughout the world for more than a year past has 



^ afTected governmental no less than personal or corpora- 



' tion revenues, and a deficit in the national treasury needs 



j^ to be provided against. As President Taft has pointed 



Q. out. if the new tariff schedules should not provide enough 



D_ revenue for the near future, the congress faces the neces- 



sity of devising extraordinary sources of income for 

 possible requirements of the government. 



The new tariff bill which has been introduced at Wash- 

 ington appears in no wise to differ in principle from the 

 existing statute, and only time can tell what may be the 

 effect, either upon revenues or upon general business, of 

 such changes from the schedules of 1897 as the congress 

 may approve. But whatever form the new tariff law 

 may take, business is certain to be retarded while the 

 legislators are in session, and the whole industrial and 

 commercial world will welcome the earliest possible com- 

 pletion of their task. 



One encouraging fact is that tariff schedules and regu- 

 lations are getting to be regarded as of less vital im- 

 portance than formerly, when, in political contests, no 

 other question was so much dwelt upon by rival party 

 workers. The rubber industry certainly is an important 

 one, but we have seen, during the four months of hear- 

 ings 'on the tariff schedules, preliminary to the congress 

 session, almost no evidence of interest in the subject on 

 the part of the leading rubber men. They cannot fail 

 to be affected, however, by anything which may lead to a 

 suspension of the building for the future which is essen- 

 tial to prosperity in any nation. LUtimately we may expect 

 to see people generally cease to regard the tariff' question 

 as the one great factor in national prosperity. 



Apart from the temporary obstacle to business pointed 

 out here, the outlook is good. For that matter, it always 

 is good for whoever can look ahead. The world advances 

 nowadays more rapidly than in earlier times, but the 

 various elements of growth do iiot always keep the same 

 pace, so that occasional readjustments become necessary. 

 Such a readjustment has been in progress of late — not 

 for the L^nited States alone, but for the civilized world — 

 and an item of the readjustment is modifying the Ameri- 

 can tariff" schedules. But it is only a fly on the cartwheel 

 which represents the world's commercial progress. The 

 cartwheel itself is all right. 



THE GREATER TIRE TROUBLES. 



THERE are other tire troubles than those which take 

 tires to the repair shop. Some of these are dealt 

 with in detail elsewhere in this issue. Take the matter of 

 patents. A patents a tire and B makes the tire and C 

 buys and uses it. Somebody goes into court with a dis- 

 puted question regarding the patent, and neither A, B, 

 nor C knows "where he is at" until — not one decision, 

 but — many decisions have been rendered. Didn't the 

 Dunlop company establish the validity of their patent in 

 the British house of lords, the final court of appeals in 

 that country? Yet in one year thereafter the Dunlop 

 company were a party to not less than 162 legal actions 

 in respect of alleged infringements. On the day of its 

 expiration the company gleefully burned the troublesome 

 patent, their chairman declaring his pleasure at the end 

 of the troubles it had caused, since which time thev have 



