296 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June 



1905. 



smiled and thanked me, saying : " I do not need this, but I 

 wanted to test the truth of The India Rubmer VVdri.d, which 

 said that you were a master of Russian.' The young man may 

 sometimes visit the home of " the only great rubber paper," 

 and then I will turn him over to the tender mercies of my 

 friend, the Editor. a. m. stickney. 



Stockholm, Sweden. April 19, 190 , 



LOWELL'S EXCITED GOLF PLAYERS. 



AT the recent annual meeting of the Vesper Country Club 

 (Lowell. Massachusetts, March 30) a resolution was 

 adopted requesting the golf committee to consider the expe- 

 diency of handicapping, by not less than half a hole, any ball 

 retailing at more than 50 cents each, and suggesting the advis- 

 ability of conditioning all strictly club events upon the use of 

 solid Gutta-percha balls. The resolution was ofTered by Mr. 

 Joseph Smith, who spoke feelingly in support of the measure, 

 as follows : 



" Mr. President : Before submitting my resolution for this 

 Club's action this evening. I would like to say a few words con- 

 cerning a condition which confronts us, and which, unless it is 

 strongly and unitedly met, spells disaster for the game of golf 

 and for clubs whose life and activities are based on golf. 



" We have all discussed the trusts more or less ; we have all 

 been fleeced by them more or less ; and, more or less, we have 

 all submitted to being plundered by them in a sort of helpless, 

 shamefaced way. We kick ; but, forgetting the noblest kicker 

 in nature, the mule, we kick with our wrong end — our tongue, 

 not our foot. 



"The beef trust robs our pantry, the coal trust our kitchen, 

 the oil trust our parlors, the woolen trust plunders our backs, 

 the whiskey trust our palates ; while the leather trust steps on 

 our corns and the collar and cuff trust gives it to us in the neck. 



" From the cradle to the grave, the furniture and coffin trusts 

 graft us ; whether we travel in baby carriages, hacks, autos, or 

 railroad coaches, somebody is levying tolls on us ; and, judging 

 from Rockefeller's activity in church affairs, he is trying to 

 corner heaven, since the other place is too hazardous for his 

 main business. 



"Quick or dead, saint or sinner, we are all robbed in the sa- 

 cred name of business, and now springs up a combination which 

 proposes to rob our recreation, to plunder our pleasures — the 

 golf ball trust, the most cold blooded, deliberate, and impudent 

 extortioner that has yet appeared in the role of a business high- 

 wayman. 



" Last year we paid $6 a dozen for balls. This year the gen- 

 tlemanly rubber robbers will charge S7.20, $7.50, and $9 a dozen, 

 but they will shrewdly keep some balls at $6 this year to quiet 

 our fears, and next year we will be blandly told the $5 ball has 

 been abandoned as unprofitable and only the robber rubber 

 ball will be left for us. 



" Next year it will be a choice of high balls or croquet. The 

 modest golf ball trust regards 40 per cent, as a dead loss, 60 

 per cent, as a bare living, 80 per cent, as a meager profit and 95 

 per cent, as about a fair thing. Beside the golf ball trust, the 

 daughter of the horse leech is a modest young thing. 



" What does this condition mean for the game of golf and 

 for this Club? Without golf this Country Club will decline, 

 and the quickest way to kill golf is to make the game too ex- 

 pensive for the player of modest means ; that is for every 

 player in the Vesper Country Club. 



" New players are necessary for the continuance of the club, 

 and the new players as a rule must come from the young men 

 whose means make the exorbitant prices I have cited prohibi- 



tive. Without new blood in golf, golf dies and the death of 

 golf will mean the death of this Club. 



"Asa general proposition as the exactions of a trust are 

 everybody's business, and everybody's business is nobody's 

 business, we all submit meekly to plunder. This golf ball trust, 

 however, is a personal affair for every one of us ; it not only 

 picks the pocket of every individual, but it hits the Vesper 

 Country Club and every other club like it a foul' blow. It is 

 for us to hit back, and hit hard, and now. We wouldn't be 

 worth our salt if we submitted without a fight. 



" Individually we should refuse to buy or use the golf balls 

 and golf goods of any member of the trust ; collectively as a 

 club, we can make the use on our links of anything bearing 

 their brand both unpopular and embarrassing ; and, as a fur- 

 ther move, we can appeal to every club in Massachusetts, New 

 England, America, to stand with us for fair play, honest deal- 

 ing and clean sport, and to help us to defeat and discredit the 

 latest, meanest and most contemptible of trusts, that of golf 

 balls." 



Referring to Mr. Smith's highly impassioned speech, Har- 

 per's Weekly (April 15) says, in an editorial: "This is a sad 

 story, and implies defect of faith in mankind when incorpora- 

 ted—a defect that is almost prevalent enough nowadays to be 

 called epidemic. The high priced balls have rubber in them, 

 and the money invested in them goes farther when skilfully 

 smitten than that represented by the cheaper old style balls. 

 But the possibility that the balls may become too good for the 

 good of the game is worth considering, and the Lowell club 

 has done worthily to bring it to attention." 



The Lowell Mail goes further, and declares that the effect of 

 Mr. Smith's effort has been to " bust'' the golf ball trust. Veri- 

 fication of this assertion, however, has not been had from any 

 other source. 



SOME WANTS OF THE TRADE. 



[330] TTROM a New England jobbing house: " We desire 

 ■I- to know if you can inform us who manufactures 

 the basin stopper with flange, as we are having quite a number 

 of calls for these, and would like to stock them." 



[331] From a Boston jobbing house: " We desire to know 

 if you will be kind enough to inform us of the name of the best 

 manufacturer of garden hose reels. We use quite a quantity 

 of these in a season and would like to make connections with 

 the right concern on these goods." 



[332] From a New York commission house : " Can you fur- 

 nish us with a list of names of makers of hard rubber, espec- 

 ially those who make hard rubber for electrical purposes, as 

 accumulator boxes, etc.? " 



[333] From a factory in Massachusetts : " Kindly advise us 

 of the names of suppliers of Lithophone, and oblige." 

 ANSWERS. 



[317] The Manufactured Rubber Co. (Philadelphia) and the 

 Raven Mining Co. (Chicago) mention being in a position to 

 supply material suited for coating cotton goods to be used as 

 wagon covers and the like. 



[324] Joseph Bondy's Sons (No. 407 Broadway, New York) 

 report that they make a specialty of machinery for extracting 

 rubber from Guayule ; also of selling rubber of this grade. 



[327] The Faultless Rubber Co. (Akron, Ohio) is interested 

 in having the names of concerns desiring massage novelties. 



[328] Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Co. (Boston) reply 

 to the inquiry for conveyor belts — two ply center, four ply ends. 



[329] Excelsior Machine Works (Akron, Ohio) manufac- 

 ture machines for binding hose with wire. 



