34 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1904. 



matter of great gain to the country, which in an earlier 

 period gave up one year in four to troubled suspense while 

 awaiting the result of the November balloting. 



So far as can be discerned at this time of the year, 'the 

 rewards of production in every department have compared 

 favorably with the showing of any past year. Crops of 

 every kind appear to have been abundant, and selling 

 prices favorable ; manufacturing in every branch has been 

 well maintained ; and in whatever tends to enhance the 

 wealth of the nation or to promote the prosperity of its cit- 

 izens, 1904 seems destined to make a good record. Such 

 being the situation to-day, a change can hardly come un- 

 til there is a season of less abundant crops, or some un- 

 foreseen disaster overtakes industry. Present material 

 conditions are not to be changed by any mere chance of 

 political fortune, for which reason the purely trade journal, 

 such as ours is, can well afford to leave to others the dis- 

 cussion of political jilatforms and candidates, feeling con- 

 fident that in the end the intelligence of the people may 

 always be depended on. 



RUBBER AND THE CONGO QUESTION. 



THE report that the president of the United States had 

 decided not to attempt to interfere with respect to 

 the administration of the Congo Free State appears to have 

 been due to a misapprehension, but such a decision, in our 

 opinion, would be wholly proper. The interest of this 

 country in Congo affairs, from whatever point of view open 

 to Mr. Roosevelt, we conceive to be much less substantial 

 than that of the European powers identified with the Berlin 

 treaty, and so long as the latter remain silent, the United 

 States have no clear call to initiate the reforms for which 

 a need is alleged to exist. Such action as has been 

 erroneously reported from Washington would serve to 

 nullify the work of the two recent distinguished English 

 visitors on our shores — Mr. Morel, to attack, and Mr. 

 Head, to defend, the administration of Leopold II, the 

 sovereign of the Congo state. It might have the further 

 effect of softening the asperity with which the Congo con- 

 troversy has been waged beyond the Atlantic, by leaving 

 neither side any reason to expect support from America. 

 To this extent the effort to carry the war into this country 

 would, in the end, prove productive of good. 



Comment upon the purely political aspects of the Congo 

 controversy is beyond the scope of The India Rubber 

 World. We do not even know whether there is, or is not, 

 a basis for the charge that commercial rather than humane 

 motives have inspired what is called on the Continent the 

 "British campaign" against the king of the Belgians. 

 Our only reason for touching apon the matter at all is that 

 it relates to a region which has become an important 

 source of India-rubber supplies, and the effect of the ad- 

 ministration of the Free State upon rubber production is a 

 matter of interest alike to the United States and every 

 other country where the Congo product is consumed. And 

 in forming the views expressed below, we are not con- 

 scious of having been influenced by any " reform " or com- 

 mercial or other organization in England or elsewhere. 



The rate of increase in the production of rubber in the 

 Congo Free State was for several years unprecedented in 

 any country. Whereas, before the establishment of the 

 State, practically no rubber had been exported from that 

 region, the output soon attained the large volume of 1,5, 

 250,000 pounds for a single year. This was produced al- 

 most wholly by the labor of natives, not before accustomed 

 to sustained or continuous work of any kind, and supposed 

 to be disinclined to all forms of industry. It is inconceiv- 

 able that millions of these almost uncivilized blacks 

 should suddenly, of their own accord, rush to the forests 

 to extract rubber — for uses unknown to them, by foreign 

 peoples whose very existence they were not aware of. 

 Only extraordinary promises of compensation for their 

 work could be expected to lead such simple minded folk 

 to engage willingly in gathering rubber. But proof is 

 lacking that even living wages are paid to the Congolese. 

 The published official statistics of imports on the Congo 

 fail to indicate any fair return to the natives for their 

 work in preparing the great quantities of rubber sent out, 

 and the fact that people in such circumstances exert 

 themselves on so great a scale for practically no tangible 

 compensation might readily give rise to reports that armed 

 force is the real incentive. 



It certainly is pertinent to ask whether these conditions 

 are favorable to the proper conservation of the rubber 

 plants, without which the supply must ultimately cease, 

 leaving the commerce of the Congo Free State, as now or- 

 ganized, without any basis. The Congo exports have 

 shown a falling off since 1901, although rubber from that 

 source shared in the general advance in price which has 

 stimulated the extraction of rubber in other parts of the 

 world. What concerns the rubber manufacturers, there- 

 fore, is not such questions regarding the Congo as have 

 been debated in the British and Belgian parliaments, or 

 such memorials as that presented at Washington. The 

 question is whether the responsible heads of the Congo 

 government are supporting or conniving at a policy of un- 

 necessary exhaustion of important supplies of a much 

 needed raw material. 



A STRANGE INDUSTRY " DISCOVERED. 



THE able Brooklyn Eagle has suddenly made the surpris- 

 ing discovery that there is "value in old rubbers." But 

 it is a bold assertion to make, that " Not one in a thousand 

 New Yorkers is aware that one of the big industries of this 

 country is the importation of old rubber shoes and goloshes." 

 The latest official estimate of the population of the city (Aug- 

 ust I, 1904) is 3,838,024. Is it not possible that two in a thous- 

 and of all these people suspect the truth ? 



Our contemporary thus explains why it remained so long m 

 ignorance of an important commercial movement: 



This importation has been going on for several years, and yet it has 

 seemingly never attracted the attention of the alert chroniclers of inter- 

 esting events, for the old shoes and goloshes have slipped into the 

 country silently, hidden away on the manifests of the steamships and 

 quickly sent to the consignees, who have eagerly paid the freight. 



If these consignees had not been so eager to pay the freight, 

 possibly three in a thousand New Yorkers might have been in 

 the secret by this time. 



