April i, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



235 



The fact that Ceylon rubber planters are able to sell their 

 crops to home merchants a year ahead at fixed prices puts them 

 on a better plane than any agricultural interest elsewhere known 

 to us. 



Some Englishmen have invested in a company to plant rub- 

 ber in Florida, in the United States. But many Englishmen have 

 become so enthusiastic over rubber that we should not be sur- 

 prised to hear of their going in for plantations on the moon. 



One indication that Uncle Sam is not so badly off finan- 

 cially just now is the fact that during the recent deliberations 

 of the commitee framing a new revenue bill no suggestion has 

 been heard that an import duty might be placed on crude rubber. 



The higher prices of critoe rubber than prevailed during the 

 last year may reasonably be regarded as pointing to a larger 

 consumption, which is another way of saying that the condition 

 of the industry on the whole is improving. 



Automobiles figure in the new American tariff hii.l. 

 though they did not in the law enacted twelve years ago, whicli 

 is only one illustration of why tariff schedules, if there must bo 

 tariff schedules, need to be revised now and then to keep them 

 up to date. 



While the British colonies in the east have taken the 

 lead in rubber planting, it will require strenuous efforts to prevent 

 the later enterprise of other countries from securing the posi- 

 tion they now hold. As will be seen elsewhere in this paper, 

 rubber is being planted in the colonies of the other European 

 powers under conditons which promise important results. 



The past winter has shown that early snows are not essen- 

 tial to the sale of rubber footwear. So long as there is any 

 snow at all "rubbers" will be in demand, which shows what 

 advance we have made since the time when it was regarded as 

 an a.xiom that the absence of snow before New Year's spelled 

 disaster to the rubber trade. 



Para, in addition to selling rubber, also buys rubber, in spite 

 of itself. At least all the recent public improvements made there. 

 by foreign enterprise, by the way, involved the use in some shape 

 of india-rubber. 



In spite of the progress of wireless telegraphy the building 

 of ocean cables goes on at a rate which empliasizes the cer- 

 tainty that the native resources of gutta-percha are nearing 

 exhaustion, when rubber must be substituted for insulation work 

 in this field. 



The imminent exhaustion of the guayule rubber supply 

 causes no perturbation in Mexico. From the rate that new 

 plants supposed to contain rubber are being discovered in that 

 republic, it would seem that Mexico may long afford a field for 

 the investment of outside capital that is not attracted by her 

 mines of silver and gold. 



Two years from now is early enough for the next interna- 

 tional rubber exhibition which it is proposed to hold in London. 

 The idea of holding the exhibiton is to be commended, however, 

 and without doubt 191 1 will witness an advance in rubber culti- 

 vation, and in other departments of the exhibiton, that will 

 fnark a great advance over the conditions which made the 

 Olympia affair of last September such a success. 



The reported objection of some of the rubber manufacturing 

 companies to their employes taking "an active part in politics" 



presumably is not directed against the men voting, but against 

 their seeking public office, and, if successful at the polls, filling 

 the same while still on the factory pay rolls. But the fact that 

 any of the companies have felt obliged to take such action is 

 evidence that they have numbered among their employes some 

 good citizens. 



The growth of the United States is illustrated, in a way, 

 by the story printed on another page of the founding of a 

 great Scottish india-rubber factory. The home field was sup- 

 posed then to be overcrowded, and .surplus capital went abroad 

 to find a field for profitable investment. That condition exists 

 no longer, but the United States have been obliged to borrow 

 enormous sums from Europe for the development of oppor- 

 tunities on this side of the Atlantic. 



It is not so many years since an importer of India-rubber 

 in New York was reported to have bought from a truckman 

 from time to time some of his own stock, which his employe had 

 thriftily abstracted from the firm's warehouse to his own ultimate 

 large advantage. Ever since rubber began to be a high priced 

 commodity the stealing of it has 'been an annoyance to be 

 guarded against seriously. The proposition of the India-Rubber 

 Manufacturers' Association of England that plantation rubber 

 should be trade marked with officially registered brands seems 

 to have merit apart from the idea of the author of the sugges- 

 tion. That is to say, the advantage to the manufacturer of 

 being able to buy raw material by brand is supplemented by the 

 ability of manufacturers and dealers in raw rubbers to identify 

 particular lots to an extent not possible before rubber began to 

 he designated so definitely. 



THE GUAYULE RUBBER INTEREST. 



T UTHER BURBANK, described as "the plant wizard of Cali- 

 ■*— ' fornia," was mentioned in the Torreon Enterprise of recent 

 date as being then on the Hacienda de la Pena for the purpose 

 of experimenting with Mexican plants. He is reported to be in- 

 terested particularly in guayule. The Enterprise says: "Mr. 

 Burbank is trying to find a way of making the shrub grow plenti- 

 fully, and has planted several sections of ground with the 

 guayule, trying different soil and moisture on the plants." 



The new guayule rubber factory of the Compania Guayulera 

 de Torreon, S. A., [see The India Rubber World, March i, 1909, 

 page 214] was inaugurated on March i. A number of guests from 

 Torreon and Gomez Palacio went over on a special train and 

 were shown through the works, after which a banquet was 

 served. The ceremonies were presided over by a representative 

 of the governor of the State. 



.A. press dispatch from Torreon, Mexico, dated March 11, says: 

 "Japanese agents are here in competition with Americans buying 

 up the rubber produced from the guayule plant, and are in most 

 cases paying the best prices and getting most of the product." 



IT would be interesting to know whether the approval of Scot- 

 ^ land Yard has been asked for the employment of the Kemp- 

 shall Pneumatic Tyre on public motor vehicles, and, if so, with 

 what result.-— r/»<7 Financial News, London, March 5, 1909. 



The .American Association of Commerce and Trade of 

 Berlin, founded in 1903 and composed of German and Ameri- 

 can business firms, with the purpose of promoting trade rela- 

 tions between the two countries, in its latest Bulletin reports 

 a successful past year with promising prospects for the cur- 

 rent year. The secretary of the association and chairman of 

 the editorial committee, Professor George S. Atwood, of 

 Berlin, is widely known in the rubber trade, and has been a 

 frequent contributor to The India Rubber World. 



