May 1, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



265 



MECHANICAL RUBBER MANUFACTURERS' DINNER. 



THE second annual banquet of the Mechanical Rubber 

 Manufacturers' Association of the United States was 

 enjoyed at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York, on the 

 evening of April 6 The members of the association 

 and their guests gathered in the spacious reception rooms on 

 the Fifth avenue side and after a half hour's social adjourned 

 to the beautiful " myrtle room," where covers were laid for 

 eighty. All of the appointments, the arrangement of the tables, 

 the floral display, the music, and the menu were in the best 

 possible taste and were thoroughly appreciated. 



The guests' table was on a platform facing the eight round 

 tables at which the audience gathered. Here sat B. (j. Work, 

 the president of the association, with Commodore E. C. Bene- 

 dict at his right and Colonel Samuel P. Colt on his left. Others 

 seated at this table were H. D. Warren, president of the Gutta 

 Percha and Rubber Manufacturing Co. of Toronto ; E. S. Wil- 

 liams, general manager of the Revere Rubber Co. (Boston); 

 W. H. Hillman, secretary of the association; C. Edward Mur- 

 ray, Trenton ; and Henry C. Pearson. 



When the wants of the inner man had 

 been fully satisfied, President Work called 

 the feasters to order and in a few well 

 chosen words introduced Commodore 

 Benedict. The speaker caught the fancy 

 of the audience from the start by stating 

 that Public School No. 10 at Buffalo, from 

 which he graduated many years before, 

 did not teach oratory. It therefore re- 

 mained for him to dance a jig or sing a 

 song. To the former accomplishment he 

 had brought a well developed case of lum- 

 bago, and as for the latter, while they 

 might catch the words they would prob- 

 ably go outside to get the " air." He felt 

 at home, however, with those who fought 

 together by day and dined together at 

 night. When he was formally in gas fights 

 the evening usually brought the warriors 

 of the day together to feats gastronomic. 

 When a boy he said he would at any time 

 play hooky to see a lathe or a boat. His 

 desire to be a machinist had been nipped 

 in the bud by his 56 years in Wall street, 

 but his ambition to be a sailor had ^ _ 

 been in part realized. When he first 

 reached New York he had ten 

 friends who had always stuck to him 

 (his fingers) and one of the first 

 things they found to do wa> the 

 founding of the shipping firm of 

 Benedict & Corning — not to own 

 ships, but to put ventures on them. 

 They used to buy crude Pard rubber 

 and tapioca, the former at 28 to 30 

 cents a pound. Finally they bought 

 too much tapioca and it spoiled in 

 transit, wrecking the firm, and since 

 then he never could eat tapioca 

 without gagging. 



Reverting to his recent trip up 



the Amazon, he claimed that the newspapers had already cov- 

 ered all of it that was " fit to pr[nt." His had been the second 

 vessel to carry the American flag up that mighty river. He 

 had been royally entertained, received gold headed canes, ban- 

 quets, and addresses of welcome, and had made speeches in 

 return in English which few of his hearers could understand. 

 Had they understood his remarks concerning his early ventures 

 in rubber they certainly would have dubbed him the rubber 

 Methuselah. 



One sad fact the speaker emphasized was that each ton of 

 rubber coming from the Amazon costs a human life. He 

 graphically sketched the shipment of the steamer loads of 

 famished Cearenses up the great river where, the first year, 50 

 out of each 100 die, the second year 25, and the third vear the 

 remainder are acclimated but partial invalids. Thus a $250 

 family is worth very shortly $1000 to the aviadores. Another 

 point that he made was that the extremely high prices of rub- 

 ber had decreased the Amazonian product one-seventh instead 

 of increasing it, as the workers did not have to work as hard 

 or as long to earn the amount of money 

 that satisfied them.* Nor was it feasible 

 to get other help, for Japanese coolies 

 would not go up there, and the Chinese 

 were not allowed to. It was a battle be- 

 tween nature in its most savage aspect 

 and civilization, but in the end the latter 

 would win out— just how, he did not 

 know. 



Colonel Samuel P. Colt, who had the 

 promise of the secretary that he would 

 not be called on, but was by the invitation 

 of the toastmaster and the manifest wish 

 of the audience, then got upon his feet. 

 He explained earnestly that he came un- 

 prepared ; that he had insisted before ac- 

 cepting the invitation to the dinner that 

 he had no time to prepare a speech, and 

 after a pause drew out the manuscript of 

 his recent speech at the New England 

 Rubber Club, saying : " I take it that none 

 of you read The India Rubber World, 



COMMODORE E. C- BENEDICT. ' 



rn;„,.„, „f .1 11 •■ .1 c, , u v,k r- j .1 in which paper this was printed, and I am 



LlJirector 01 the Ututed Stales Rubber Co. and the f r r • 



General Rubber Co. Recently returned from a trip therefore going tO read a few extracts 

 to the Amazon, on the yacht /'i>;g-i'w/(7.] , ,, . / ,- , 



only. After reading and comment- 



MENU 



HUITRES DE CAFE COD 



GOMBO DE VOLAILLE. PRINTANIERE 



Radis Olives Ctiieri Amandes salfees 



ALOSE DE GEORGETOWN SUR PLANCHE 



Pommcs de terrc, Parisienne 



Salade de Concombres 



coquili.es de ris de veau, archiduc 

 mignons de eilet de liociif, cardinalice 



Pommcs de tcrre. Palestine 



Pois nouveaux a la frarcaise 



PampUjnoiisse au tnarasquijt 



PINTADE DU PRINTEMPS ROTIE 



Salade de Saison 



GLACES ASSORTIES 



Petits fours Fruits 



Caf6 



ing interestingly he threw down his 

 manuscript, and reviewed the rub- 

 ber industry as a whole most com- 

 prehensively. Speaking of the search 

 for substitutes he recalled the time 

 when the late Joseph Banigan told 

 him of a mine of rubber (elaterite) 

 that he had found in Utah, but so 



♦With all due respect to Commodore Bene- 

 dict, it is probable that he has studied the re- 

 cent statistics of crude rubber production ai 

 a wkcU less closely than the details of the rub- 

 ber business with which he is more intimately 

 interested. At any rate, it seems proper in this 

 connection to point to the fij^ures contained on 

 page 260 of this Journal, which indicate that, 

 while the Amazon output does not grow large- 

 ly, year by year, it does not show a falling off. 

 — The Editor. 



