224 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, 1902. 



of not to exceed 15,000 square miles within the limits indicated 

 on the map. The object of the company to be formed is to 

 open mines and develop means of transportation, and export 

 rubber and any other native products of value, on which they 

 shall pay the customary export dues. Otherwise, the company 

 is to be exempt from internal taxes for 50 years, and also from 

 import duties on construction materials. But their imports 

 for other purposes shall be dutiable. Of the net annual profits, 

 40 per cent, shall be set apart, one half to be applied to works 

 of public'utility and the other half to be subject to the discre- 

 tion of the government. After 50 years the mines and proper- 

 ties of the company shall be subject to the taxes of the coun- 

 try, without any privilege whatever. 



The difference between the two concessions is that, while the 

 one for Caupolican relates to the exploiting of the resources of 

 the district by the concessionaires, as is being done on a smaller 

 scale on many concessions already in Boliva, the Acre conces- 

 sion relates to the general administration of a wide area, under 

 terms by which the concessionaire for the time being takes the 

 place of the Government— respecting the rights, of course, of 

 existing private enterprises in the district. Thus in its larger 

 field of operations, the Bolivian Syndicate, instead of attempt- 

 ing a monopoly of development on the Acre, will be interested 

 in encouraging all forms of legitimate enterprise within that 

 region— their profits depending upon the extent to which the 

 resources of the country are exploited. The financial mterests 

 involved in the two syndicates are identical. 



HEARD IN THE RUBBER TRADE. 



THE American faculty for terse and picturesque language 

 is always a matter of marvel and oftentimes of admira- 

 tion on the part of the foreigner. A case in point is that of a 

 salesman of American mechanical rubber goods who has been 

 in South Africa for some time and who, in order to get at 

 certain large customers, attached himself to a British army 

 train. Being very anxious to reach a certain city in a hurry he 

 was much disgusted to learn that the engmeer of the train re- 

 fused to run at night for fear of the Boers. In venting his dis- 

 pleasure he wrote to a certain high army official that : " A man 



might just as well be in h without a fan as to try to run an 



engine without nerve." This expression so caught the fancy 

 of the officer that he at once showed it to General Lord Kitch- 

 ener, who at once sought the acquaintance of the young man, 

 and since then has counted him both friend and adviser. 



* ♦ * 



W. A. Stewart, of Stewart Brothers & Co. (Pittsburgh), who 

 was a recent visitor to the Atlantic coast, talked very interest- 

 ingly of the rubber shoe business in the city named. He stated 

 in brief that within 100 miles of Pittsburgh there were more 

 rubber shoes sold than in any equal area in the United States. 

 He stated further that the rubber boot trade was very large, as 

 in the mines the sulphur water seems to destroy rubber rapidly, 

 and in other places the oil is equally effective. In lighter foot- 

 wear the iron and coal grit and rough roads seem to call for an 

 unusual number of pairs of rubber shoes. 



* » » 



The " Trust " is not, to everybody at least, an unmitigated 

 evil. Instead of being crushed out by it, the retailer frequently 

 uses it to reap an undue profit from the consumer. An official 

 in the United States Rubber Co. relates this as an experience 

 which happened to two of his intimate friends. They went 

 into an uptown New York retail store, during the storm, to 

 purchase rubber shoes. The dealer charged them $1.25 per 

 pair forordinary light shoes, They complained of the extor- 



tion, when the dealer explained : " Well you know rubber shoes 

 are in the hands of a trust, and prices are away up.'' As a mat- 

 ter of fact, these very shoes had been sold to the retailer at 51 

 cents per pair, and the seller was simply usingthe trust bugaboo 

 to get a profit of something like 1 50 per cent. 



* • * 

 There was once a rubber manufacturer who was alert, ag- 

 gressive, capable, and marvelously successful. When he was 

 thirty-eight years of age he was worth more than a million and a 

 half dollars. His moral equipment, however, was as weak as his 

 physical and mental was strong. His motto was : " A sucker is 

 born every minute, and that's the fish I am after." To day he 

 is practically penniless, his friends gone, and he himself a fugi- 

 tive from justice. A true story and a sad one, with a colossal 

 moral. 



RUBBER NOTES FROM EUROPE. 



THE commission convened annually by the German im- 

 perial statistical office for the extension of trade with 

 foreign countries was in session at Berlin on March 13, 14, 

 and 15. Director Louis Hoff, of the Vereinigte Gummiwaren- 

 Fabriken, Harburg-Wien, and a member of the chamber of 

 commerce of Harburg, has been added to the commission as 

 an expert on rubber manufactures. Director S. Seligman, of 

 the Continental Caoutchouc- und Guttapercha Co., and a mem- 

 ber of the Hanover chamber of commerce, was already a 

 member of the commission. The Gtimvii- Zeitiing says: "It 

 is said that both gentlemen work earnestly and conscientiously 

 in the duties of their honorable offices. This is further proof 

 that the rubber industry is recognized to be one of the lead- 

 ing enterprises in the commercial world." 



= Proceedings have been begun in London for winding up 

 the Orton (Bolivia) Rubber Co., Limited, organized some six 

 years ago, with £300,000 capital. 



PROFITS OF AN ENGLISH CABLE WORKS. 



At the thirty-eighth annual meeting of the Telegraph Con- 

 struction and Maintenance Co., Limited (London, March 4), the 

 chairman announced that the report submitted was the best 

 within his recollection, and the profits for the year the largest. 

 Their total assets were now £2.396,665. The year's trading 

 had yielded a net profit of £105,695. The dividend now to be 

 declared would bring the payments to 20 percent, for the year. 

 There would be carried forward £91,000, against £76,554 last 

 year. The year had witnessed the completion of a new all 

 British line from Cornwall (England) to Australia, connecting 

 with Capetown, beingf 15.000 nautical miles in length— the lay- 

 ing of the first section of which was completed early in 1900. 

 The cost involved was £3,000,000. The company were now at 

 work on the British Pacific cable to connect Vancouver with 

 Australia, and which had to be completed this year. Their 

 cable ship Anglia was now in the Pacific, laying some of the 

 the shorter sections. In order to complete the laying of 

 the cable they had launched a new cable ship, the Colonia, 

 which was the largest in the world, which would carry 

 10,000 tons dead weight. ==-=The paid-up capital of the com- 

 pany consists of £448,200, in £12 shares, quoted at the begin- 

 ning of the past month at 38 @ 41. There are outstanding 

 £150,000 in 4 per cent. £100 debentures, redeemable 1909, 

 quoted at 102 @ io5.==On March 20 the AngUa reached 

 Doubtless Bay, New Zealand, having completed the laying of 

 the sections of cable from Norfolk Island to Southport, Queens- 

 land, and to Doubtless Bay— 1473 miles. Australia and New 

 Zealand are thus connected. The Anglia had on board also 

 1019 miles of cable to connect Norfolk Island with Fiji. 



