308 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June i, 1909. 



prices for rubber goods — the latter to go up or down 

 automatically with the former. That this is not prac- 

 ticable, however, is true, if for no other reason than that 

 rubber goods do not go into consumption at any fixed 

 interval after the purchase of raw materials. At the 

 moment when rubber may be purchased at the lowest 

 cost of the year, a manufacturer may be putting into 

 goods material for which he has paid extreme high 

 prices, and so on. It is a safer plan, therefore, for a 

 manufacturer to seek, as far as possible, a uniform 

 price for his products, rather than to disturb the trade 

 by adding something should rubber rise inordinately 

 or taking ofif something when the price goes below 

 normal. 



It may be added that a study of crude rubber prices 

 for several years past, compared with the profits stated 

 by the rubber company report before us, fails to reveal 

 any connection whatever. A\'e have compiled the fol- 

 lowing figures indicating the percentage, in each of 

 eight years, of operating profits as compared with the 

 total of sales: 



1902 2.2 per cent. 1906 14.9 per cent. 



1903 8.9 per cent. 1907 11. 7 per cent. 



1904 7.8 per cent. 1908 10.7 per cent. 



1905 15.2 per cent. 1909 17.6 per cent. 



Crude rubber was exceptionally low in 1902, the 

 year in which the smallest rate of profit was reported, 

 and at the highest level on record in 1905, when the 

 rate of profit was the highest for any year with one 

 exception. Certainly the price of rubber was not the 

 controlling factor. By the way, there is a heavy outlay 

 for other raw materials than rubber, and the cost of 

 all those would have to be studied in a full analysis of 

 factory profits — but that would be beyond the scope of 

 this article. 



There is also to be considered the possibility that 

 improvements and economies have been introduced in 

 the rubber manufacture, such as to place it on a 

 sounder foundation than at some time in the past. The 

 situation on the whole — and we do not imply that a 

 single company, whose report happens just to have 

 been issued, makes up the whole situation — appears 

 a favorable one from the standpoint of producers of rub- 

 ber looking forward to a steady market. 



COST OF PLANTATION RUBBER. 



WE have been asked whether the reports of cost 

 of rubber on some of the Eastern plantations 

 may not have been figured out unduly low, by some 

 trick of bookkeeping, in order to afTect favorably the 

 sale of shares in the planting companies. No fact that 

 has come to our notice would seem to justify such 

 thought. It should be mentioned that the manage- 

 ment of some of the more important rubber produc- 

 ing companies is in the hands, at least in part, of men 

 who have long been connected with the management 

 of tea joint stock companies. These, as a rule, have 

 been profitable, under honest management, without 



scandal of any kind, and the rubber planters seem to 

 be following in the footsteps of the tea estate man- 

 agers. Besides, those actively in control of the large 

 rubber estates whose reports have been analyzed in 

 those pages seem, as a rule, to be too well satisfied 

 with their investment to be anxious to sell their shares. 



It would be difficult in most cases, no doubt, to fig- 

 ure out the actual cost of rubber, particularly on es- 

 tates which are "in bearing" only in part, and where 

 the labor employed must be devoted more or less to 

 the care of the young and unproductive rubber. But 

 there are some estates on which considerable tracts 

 have been productive for two or three years, and 

 where presumably a fixed labor force is engaged in the 

 work of tapping and curing alone, and here it should 

 be an easy matter to arrive at the cost of these opera- 

 tions. The cost of shipment and selling is an even 

 more simple matter. It is such items that are dealt 

 with in current reports on the cost of plantation rub- 

 ber. After an estate becomes productive throughout, 

 the charge in respect of capital invested will apply 

 alike to every pound of rubber produced, when the 

 cost will be much simplified. 



We do not doubt that such estimates of cost as have 

 been made public in recent company reports have been 

 made with the utmost care, and that they are fairly 

 accurate, at least. But whatever may have been the actual 

 cost of the 350,688 pounds of rubber marketed last 

 year by The Anglo-Malay Rubber Co., Limited, the 

 "fact that it realized $355,317.24 (gold) net, and that— 

 with minor income items of 86,097.72 — they were able 

 to show net profits of $224,980.50, after paying all es- 

 tate and office expenses, with a capital issue of only 

 $666,954.83, would indicate that the holders of the 

 shares need not be eager sellers. Besides, this rubber 

 was gathered on less than 800 acres, while the com- 

 pany have three times as much more planted and paid 

 for, which is expected to come to a fappable stage 

 within a \'ery few years. 



Taft .«iT the tee, — Now that the president of the United States 

 has given the weight of his sporting preference to golf and his 

 avoirdupois to the problem of a long drive, he has become arj 

 object of interest to the rubber trade. As a loyal son of Ohio 

 he undoubtedly uses the Haskell ball, which, as everybody knows, 

 was born and brought up there. If he can get all of his energy 

 and one-half of his muscle behind a good swipe ofif the tee he 

 ought to do something like 900 yards and establish a new 

 record. 



And why not resinless l.^tex.? — Since scientists have been 

 able to secure the seedless orange, the spineless cactus and the 

 cobless corn, why not resinless latex? This is respectfully sub- 

 mitted to the plant wizard of the Pacific coast. 



Sir D.\niel Morris, k. c. m. g., whose retirement from the post 

 of imperial commissioner of agriculture for the British West 

 Indies we reported recently, has been appointed scientific adviser 

 to the British secretary of state for the colonies, in respect of 

 tropical agriculture. 



