October i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^ATORLD 



these companies to have been substantial!)' what they were 

 represented to be, and besides that they are still capable 

 of yielding large quantities of rubber. As for the failure 

 to make any profits, Mr. Russan points to mismanagement 

 as the cause only in part, and mismanagement can be reme- 

 died. But the principle obstacle seems to be certain con- 

 ditions existing in the vast and sparsely settled and loosely 

 governed districts in which the rubber trees grow, which, 

 for the time at least, are most unfavorable to foreigners in- 

 vesting their money there. A recent example of this un- 

 friendly feeling toward foreign enterprise has been the at 

 titude of one Brazilian state toward the Acre concession 

 project, the success of which, at least for the present, must 

 depend upon the privilege of navigating the Brazilian 

 watercourses which connect the Amazon with the Acre dis- 

 trict in Bolivia. It would be surprising, however, if this 

 latter condition should act as a permanent bar to the 

 investment of foreign capital in the collection of a com- 

 modity so much needed as India rubber and the consump- 

 tion of which is wholly outside of the countries of produc- 

 tion. 



But South America is not the only field in which rubber 

 working under foreign supervision has proved less profit- 

 able than was promised by the promoters of companies or- 

 ganized for this purpose. On another page of this issue 

 appears the annual report of a Belgian company formed to 

 exploit rubber in the Congo Free State, by which it ap- 

 pears that last year the company, although actually col- 

 lecting and selling loi tons of rubber, closed the year with 

 a loss. The same company, however, during two years 

 preceding had earned a satisfactory profit, which would 

 show that the case is not altogether hopeless. As for the 

 large profits reported by some other Belgian companies on 

 the Congo, it must be remembered that the state is largely 

 interested in these companies, and that every official and 

 every soldier in the rubber districts is required to do his 

 utmost to induce the natives to gather rubber, from which 

 results the stories of atrocities practised on the natives 

 that come constantly from Africa. 



That much remains to be learned of the proper treat- 

 ment of rubber is suggested by still another article in this 

 paper, by Mr. van den Kerckhove, of Antwerp, who insists 

 that much of the rubber produced on the Congo finds a mar- 

 ket at a price much lower than its original quality would 

 warrant, on account of improper handling. After rubber 

 has^once been gathered it ought not to be difficult for its 

 owners to enforce proper regulations for its care, and 

 here again appears a ray of hope for the rubber collecting 

 companies. With all the discouraging conditions, how- 

 ever, the collection of rubber continues to increase, and 

 attention is directed to some figures we give elsewhere, 

 showing a growth in the rubber exports from Bolivia of 

 about eleven fold in eleven years. The total for 1901 

 was nearly 8,000,000 pounds, mostly of high grades, and 

 this from a country scarcely known twenty years ago to 

 contain rubber, and yet the most inconveniently situated 

 country on the globe with regard to transportation. 



An item of news published this month that will attract 

 much attention relates to the negotiations of the United 



States Rubber Co. — who consume more rubber than 

 any other company in the world — for obtaining supplies 

 of rubber direct from the producing countries, instead of 

 buying through importing houses. This would involve 

 the investment of part of their capital outside of the 

 manufacturing field, and as it is the first time that a manu- 

 facturing company has made such a venture, and in view 

 of the large scope of the plans under consideration, the 

 experiment will be watched with great interest. 



It will be seen from the foregoing that there are many 

 problems connected with rubber yet to be solved, outside 

 of those which daily confront the factory superintendent, ' 

 the rubber chemist, and the inventor in the rubber field. 

 These problems have an ultimate bearing upon every user 

 of rubber in the world, and it is impossible that the sources 

 of rubber should always remain less accessible to the peo- 

 ple who require it than the sources of any other commod- 

 ity in general demand. While the conditions do not ap- 

 pear propitious for the investment of large sums in tropical 

 America and Africa, in charge, perhaps, of managers who 

 have had no experience to fit them for such business, it 

 does appear to us that a field offers for intelligent young 

 men to make a study of rubber districts, of the present 

 methods of work, of the possibilities of improvement, of 

 the character of the natives and of the best means of deal- 

 ing with them, with a view to becoming qualified to manage 

 large rubber concessions. With qualified men available, 

 there will always be a possibility of securing capital for 

 working rubber, and, at the prices which promise to pre- 

 vail for a long time to come, we still feel that good profits 

 are possible from the more direct transition of rubber from 

 the forest to the consumer. 



ENGLISH VIEW OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 



' I '"HE London Saturday Keview x^centXy devoted an ar- 

 * tide to the report of the United States industrial 

 commission, and the unofficial " Reports to the British Iron 

 Trade Association on American Industrial Conditions and 

 Competition." The points of special interest which it finds 

 in the first are the trusts and the railroads. From the facts 

 contained in this report and from other sources of informa- 

 tion, the Review concludes that in America " at present the 

 industrial pyramid is resting on its apex," and it seems to 

 hint a fear that this position cannot be righted except by 

 something like a revolution. 



Of more interest to American readers, however, is the 

 British report, which seems from an incidental reference 

 in the Revie-,o to have been compiled by a Mr. Jeans, who, 

 it is said, " covers all subjects from the effects of tariffs 

 and trusts to the comparative demerits of the English habit 

 of taking alcohcl at lunch and the American custom of 

 constant cigar smoking." The point, out of all this be- 

 wildering variety, which draws the notice of the reviewer, 

 is the superior efficiency of American workmen. The Re- 

 view summarizes the statements of the report in this man- 

 ner : 



The greater intensity of labor in America is shown by the universal 

 e.\perience that nowhere are wages so high and the cost of labor so low. 



