224 



THE INDIA RUBBER 'WORLD 



[April i, 1905. 



forests of rubber were hardly touched. A little of it was picked, 

 but the quina was the great staple. Suarez was poor, his family 

 was poor. In a small way he started in to trade for rubber. 

 The business thrived. Oaina began to fail and rubber began 

 to prosper. The rubber forests were held by men who had ac- 

 quired them under the rights of quina. Suarez did not have 

 the capital or the power to compete with them. He extended 

 his operation beyond their territory. He went on out into the 

 farther country of the savages. He traded with them, showing 

 them that if they brought him rubber there were knives and 

 beads and looking glasses within their reach. A few adven- 

 turous //V(i(/or« (rubber "pickers") followed in the trail he 

 blazed. 



He took in his brothers and they spread out through all of 

 the rivers with their canoes. Suarez was the first in the field. 

 He was afraid of nothing ; the other traders still clung to the 

 towns. He brought in his rubber and sold it to them. Then 

 he found that the land he had opened up was acquired by them 

 under concessions, and he pushed farther into the interior. Then 

 he too began to hold lands under government concessions. 

 He had a personal knowledge of the country that the others 

 possessed only by hearsay, and Iht j^'oma/es that he acquired 

 were the choice of large areas. He needed more pickers for his 

 gomales and he organized expeditions among the savages and 

 kidnapped them for his uses. Year by year his power grew and 

 his production of rubber increased. The firm of Suarez y Her- 

 manos prospered. They opened their own houses in Manuos, 

 Pari, and London, and sold direct. One brother started in to 

 develop the unknown districts on the rio Maraore, another had 

 charge in London, and Nicolas and the fourth remained in the 

 headquarters on the Cachuela Esperanza. They were picking 

 and shipping hundreds cf thousands of kilos of rubber. 



A few years ago this latter brother and Nicolas were taking 

 five batalons of rubber down over the Falls of the Madeira — 

 some 20 tons. Suarez started at daybreak one morning and his 

 brother was to follow later and join him below at a spot agreed 

 upon for the halt for the noon breakfast. Nicolas reached the 

 place and waited. An hour passed and the rest of the fleet of 

 batalons did not appear in sight on the river. Something was 

 wrong ; the savages had been about, and this trip is always 

 made with a knowledge of the danger of an attack. Suarez left 

 a guard with his own batalons and with the rest of his men re- 

 turned to the place of the previous camp. The batalons were 

 moored to the bank as they had been left. On the sandy //lya 

 was the body of his brother mutilated by the barbaros ; scat- 

 tered about were the bodies of his crew. Not one had escaped ; 

 they had evidently been rushed in a surprise and massacred 

 with scarcely the opportunity of firing a shot. With the few 

 men he had with him Suarez took up the trail. He caught up 

 with a small band ol the barbaros and surrounded them. They 

 were all killed. Suarez went on down to San Antonio and 

 shipped his rubber. He brought a larger party of his men back 

 with him and struck into the forest where he had taken the trail 

 before. This time he went in deeper. Two villages of the bar- 

 baros were wiped out. But he was not through yet. On his 

 return to Esperanza he organized a third and larger expedi- 

 tion and returned once again. I was assured by men who 

 were familiar with the circumstances that on these three puni- 

 tive expeditions that over 300 savages had been wiped out in 

 satisfaction for his brothers' death. 



It is the characteristic illustrated by this incident that per- 

 haps most clearly indicates the vital means of the success of 

 Nicholas Suarez. He never fails to exact full revenge for an 

 injury, and never fails to remember a favor. On the frontier 

 and among the primitive peoples with whom he has had to deal 



those are the only principles that formulate themselves into a 

 code. Among the Indians, the barbaros, and the half breeds 

 there are the mental standards of children, and to them he 

 stands as the embodiment of justice and protection. He pun- 

 ishes with an iron hand infractions against his domain, and he 

 hands out rewards like a feudal baron, and then, most important 

 of all, he knows when to ignore. It is a faculty that no one can 

 acquire from civilization ; it is the personal equation that has 

 enabled him to build for himself the high, the low, and the 

 middle justice in his commercial empire, and to hold it against 

 all opposition. 



Some idea of the extent of his power may be realized when 

 it is known that he ships each year, over the Falls of the Ma- 

 deira more rubber than all of the rubber houses of the interior 

 combined, and over 30 percent, of the total rubber yield of Bo- 

 livia. He owns a fleet of eight steam lanchas that ply on the 

 upper river above the falls, of from 20 to 50 tons cargo capacity 

 each, and that they represent a value of $40,000 apiece. He 

 has title to over a quarter of a million cattle that are on 

 the pampas back from the rio Beni and rio Mamor6, and acres 

 of rubber forests that are past the millions. His possessions 

 today are valued at over /goo.ooo. capitalized at the present 

 earning value of the business. On the expeditions after the 

 savages he has sent them over a thousand miles from his head- 

 quarters. On his books he carries over 3000 pickers and 

 Indians. Over 400 of these are used exclusively in portag- 

 ing the rubber over the cataracts to San Antonio. This is 

 the most exhausting labor of over six weeks for each trip, and 

 after every one the men rest for almost as long a period. 



He has no family, but he has brought the sonsof his brother 

 in London to the Esperanza; they are Cambridge men, and 

 they are growing into the business. But to-day he himself is 

 the business; the qualities that he has evolved from his en- 

 vironment have made it what it is ; he is the only factor, and 

 it will be interesting to see if a successor will be evolved who 

 can cement the structure he has raised. 



THE CHEMISTS AND RUBBER SUBSTITUTES. 



[from " THE NEW YORK TIMES."] 



TO THE Editor: A most interesting assertion is that con- 

 tained in the editorial columns of your issue of February 

 18, to wit : 



The experiments of the chemists have brought them so near success 

 ia the creation of an acceptable substitute for rubber that there remains 

 a basis of confidence that it will yet be found. 



The rubber trade at large was not aware that the " creation " 

 of such a material as you refer to was more fully assured than 

 that of an "acceptable substitute " for, say, gold. The discov- 

 erer or inventor of a substance having the properties of India- 

 rubber and its adaptation to the wants of man, and more 

 cheaply obtainable than the natural product, would be able to 

 secure a greater financial reward than has ever been enjoyed 

 by any inventor since the dawn of history. 



It may be, however, that some philanthropist is preparing to 

 dedicate such a discovery to the universal good, but in any 

 event, will not you kindly favor your many readers in the rub- 

 ber trade with details which offer a firmer "basis of confi- 

 dence " that a new era is dawning for them than the mere 

 assertion above quoted from your columns? 



gustav heinsohn. 



New York, Febiuary 21, 1905. 



Germ.\nv. — The import duty on four pneumatic automobile 

 tires is approximately $2, according to the United States con- 

 sul at Aix la Chapelle. 



