THE INDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



[October i, 1902. 



This is due not to any inherent superiority in the American worlcman. 

 but mainly to the different way in which men are handled, to better or- 

 ganization, and to the American national spirit of " hustle." " The ty- 

 pical American appears to live only to work, and to work at something 

 that will be a life-long career of usefulness to himself as an individual, 

 and to the community as interested in mechanical improvements and 

 economies." The Uni:ed States suffer most seriously in many respects 

 from the absence of a leisured class, but the effect of this universal doc- 

 trine of work pervading all sections of the community must not be neg- 

 lected if we wish to understand the rapid advance of commerce and in- 

 dustry in that country, 



AH of which is sufficiently amusing and not without sug- 

 gestiveness. 



WHERE RUBBER IS "MELTED." 



IT cannot be recalled that The India Rubber World has 

 ever professed to know everything about rubber, which 

 fact may some day prove a source of no small satisfaction to 

 the Editor, This thought is suggested just now by renewed 

 references in print to the subject of melling India-rubber- 

 something which we have insisted is never practised. It is not 

 our intention to withdraw any previous remarks on this sub- 

 ject, for rubber is not melted in anv process employed in any 

 factory known to us in the new world or the old. Still some- 

 body must be melting rubber, for an able contemporary which 

 has appeared since the last issue of The India Rubber World 

 says so. It prints an inquiry from a "subscriber" in South 

 Carolina, in these words : 



Will you let me know if the buying of old rubbers is overdone and 

 where the purchasing of same is carried on ? I have heard that the old 

 rubbers are melted and used for different purposes and have a ready 

 market. Is this so? Any information you can give me will be appre- 

 ciated, as I want to look into the matter. 



And the editor of our contemporary boldly makes answer^ 

 having perhaps in mind the reference to melting rubber in a 

 recent United States census bulletin : - 

 IT IS NOT OVERDONE. 



The buying of old rubbers is in no way overdone. You can always 

 find a ready market for them at the Rubber Reconverting Plant. Your 

 information about old rubbers being melted, etc., is perfectly correct, 

 and I have in mind a church congregation who collected old rubbers in 

 sufficient quantities to build a new house of worship. The people who 

 buy old goods can never get enough of them, as the demand for old rub- 

 bers is far in excess of the supply. 



Now if you can find the Rubber Reconverting Plant, the 

 secret will be unearthed. There is where rubber is melted. It 

 must be one of the secret processes which give the Rubber 

 Trust such an advantage over all competitors. But where is 

 the Rubber Trust? 



A SUGGESTION FOR PARA. 



TT is not only the transgressor whose way is hard. The 

 A aviador keeps him company. Imagine, if you please, the 

 delight of fitting out a hundred men with supplies for a sea- 

 son's rubber gathering, only to find at the season's end that 

 half of them are dead, while half of the rest have deserted. 

 Such an experience is likely to make a man charge the faith- 

 ful survivors a high rate of interest on his advances. If re- 

 ports are true, the aviadores have been affected in just this 

 way. 



It seems, however, that the difficulty is due to a wrong se- 

 lection of laborers. A Peruvian planter who has meandered 

 as far north as Denver, Colorado, has confided to his friends, in 

 the hearing of a reporter of the Post in that city, that he suc- 



ceeds in making money by getting apes to gather his harvest 

 for him. To be sure, this veracious planter grows nuts and 

 not rubber, but his plantation is on the Ucayali river, which is 

 in a rubber region, and it would seem that he might be able to 

 train his monkeys to do tapping for him. 



The advantages of such laborers are obvious. They can 

 climb up the trunk, and so tap much higher than a human 

 sertnguiero, they are impervious to malaria, they will not run 

 away. At least the Peruvian planter says they do not run 

 away if only he goes out once in a while and fiddles for them. 

 A well acclimated tiddler and two or three dozen monkeys 

 seem to be the ideal force for rubber gathering. If only the 

 Rubber Estates of Para, Limited, had found that out soon 

 enough, how different its record might have been I It may be 

 that the ape is the key to unlock the labor problem of the 

 Amazon valley. 



The supply is at present somewhat limited, but perhaps the 

 Peruvian planter could be persuaded to devote his time to 

 training a few thousand monkey laborers. Incidentally, he 

 could give lessons on his violin to intending fiddlers. Mon- 

 keys trained in such a fashion could be relied upon to endure 

 much, and we should expect an immediate noticeable increase 

 in the output of Para rubber. Hurrah for the ape ! 



A CAREFUL reader OF THE NEWSPAPERS who thinks about 

 the matter at all must often find himself impressed with the 

 feeling that the rubber manufacturers are hopelessly lacking in 

 progressiveness. Here they go on, buving more rubber year 

 after year, and in most years paying higher prices for it. And 

 yet for a good while past almost any newspaper would have 

 pointed out how unnecessary is the expenditure of money for 

 any such purpose. Here, for example, we read in the New York 

 Eiiening World xM'aX" Qoxn rubber cannot be told by the lay- 

 man from the South American rubber tree product," while " it 

 can be sold for one tenth of the price of the Para rubber." 

 Now since nearly all rubber goods are made for the use of 

 " laymen," what is the use of buying high priced raw materials ? 

 The New York newspaper explains that this new product "is 

 made of corn oil, which is treated with sulphur and baked in 

 order to make ' real rubber ' out of it," after which it can be 

 used to make " rubber boots, bicycle tires, sheet rubber, water- 

 proofing, rubber heels, linoleum — in fact, nearly all classes of 

 rubber goods." The old fogy manufacturer who goes on mak- 

 ing rubber boots and bicycle tires of Patd — or even African — 

 rubber is likely to awake on some cold day to find his business 

 captured by a progressive competitor who makes his goods of 

 " corn rubber, " at a cost of 6 cents a pound. 



At the present slow rate of getting after the Trusts on 

 the part of the authorities and the law makers there is great 

 danger that many of these iniquitous institutions will not sur- 

 vive long enough to suffer any legal penalty. Or will the 

 legislators make laws retroactive in their application, to apply 

 to Trusts that have existed as well as those which may be 

 doing business when the laws are enacted ? 



Instead of being discouraged by the fall in rubber prices 

 since lanuary, the planters in Malaysia have decided that 

 cheaper rubber will lead to a greater demand for their pro- 

 duct, in which respect we think that they are right. 



Having completed ITS thirteenth year of publication. 

 The India Rubber World is able to say that, thus far, it has 

 failed to observe any evidence of thirteen being an unlucky 

 number. 



