Januarv I, 1903.] 



IHE INDiA RUBBER WORLD 



111 



appear to us to make a very bad showing for rubber 

 culture. The' plantation referred to evidently is that of 

 Sefior Joaquin Jiminez, some details concerning which, 

 in our issue of August last, were probably more accurate 

 thkn those given by Mr. Haskin. 



A NEW RUBBER SWINDLE. 



WE give space this month to a contribution unusual 

 for the pages of The India Rubber World, in 

 that it involves a direct charge of fraud against a person 

 named therein, and against whom no legal proceedings 

 have been brought. We have been aware for some time 

 that rubber manufacturers were being approached by the 

 inventor of an alleged artiiicial India-rubber — showing 

 samples which possessed value, but which were unques- 

 tionably composed of real rubber or largely so — with a 

 view to obtaining money from them for the further de- 

 velopment of its production. We are reliably informed 

 also, of considerable sums of money having been obtained 

 from persons of the highest business standing, but with- 

 out a practical knowledge of rubber or the rubber busi- 

 ness, who were made to believe that this was a valuable 

 product that could be manufactured at such a low cost as 

 to promise very large profits. The author of the commu- 

 nication which we give space to is a gentleman of the 

 highest standing, who, in his professional capacity, as a 

 member of a leading legal firm in New York city, was 

 called upon to take part in negotiations looking to the in- 

 vestment by some clients of capital in the alleged artifi- 

 cial rubber industry. In a note to the Editor, in addition 

 to his letter which we print, Mr. Stayton writes : " My 

 honest conviction, after a great deal of investigation, is 

 that this process is a fraud, and that it is being used to 

 swindle If I can do anything to prevent the public being 

 deceived any further in the matter I should like to do so." 



One may gain a lively sense of the frugal nature of the 

 Chinaman, at home, from a study of the new tariff schedule 

 which, after so much discussion, has gone into effect in the 

 Celestial empire. To illustrate the rigorous nature of the im- 

 port duties, 20 cask must be paid on every pair of India-rubber 

 shoes brought in from the outside barbarian world — 20 cash, a 

 sum too small to be expressed conveniently in the money of 

 the United States. The duty on 1000 pairs of "rubbers" 

 would be $12 62. Thrifty, indeed, are the people who concern 

 themselves, in tariff making, with such minute computations. 

 And here is a chance for Germany, where the makers of rub- 

 ber footwear complain of the high tariff walls that keep their 

 goods out of Russia and the United States, while the surplus 

 production of these countries pours ceaselessly over the lower 

 walls of the Zollverein. Sell rubbers in China ! No high tariff 

 laws there — a duty of less than 5>f pfennige a pair for rubbers, 

 and more people than could jbe supplied withrubbers in a cen- 

 tury. 



Some items of more than usual interest appear in 

 our notes on rubber planting and exploitation this month. 

 For instance, there is reported the formation of a company to 

 plant Hevea rubber in Cuba, from seeds yielded by a number 

 of trees brought to that island from Brazil a good while ago. 

 Samples of rubber from these trees sent to The India Rub- 



ber World are very fine, indeed. The only criticism possible 

 to make is that it is a little sour, owing to the fermentation of 

 the albumen. If belter coagulated or dried more quickly, 

 this Cuban product, judged by these samples, ought to be 

 equal to the best rubber now obtained from Para. There is 

 reported on another page the first importation of rubber from 

 the Philippines into the United States, by a manufacturer who 

 expects, from the character of the samples obtained by him 

 from that quarter, to find the rubber of considerable value, in 

 spite of somewhat unfavorable reports hitherto regarding the 

 quality of Philippines rubber. Should he attain the results 

 expected, it may lead to an important development of rubber 

 production under the United States flag. Among new rubber 

 planting companies mentioned is one organized as a joint 

 stock company, pure and simple, instead of the sale of shares 

 on the installment plan as has been the rule with planting 

 companies formed in this country hitherto to operate in 

 Mexico. The new plan appears to have merit, and may in 

 time supersede the older procedure. 



The India Rubber World has been careful, as a rule, 

 not to poke fun at its esteemed contemporaries, but where one 

 is as far away as Canada and when it is as good and capable a 

 publication as the Canadian Shoe and Leather Journal, it may 

 not be risky to comment briefly on the description of making 

 rubber shoes which appeared in its November issue, particu- 

 larly as the article is commended by the writer to all shoe 

 clerks who handle rubbers and who may thus be able to talk in- 

 telligently upon their production. The pirt of the article 

 which has its touch of humor reads as follows (the italics being 

 ours) : 



The rubber which is to form the uppers is coaled with a tricotic 

 tissue, by passing through a culendar ; that intended for the soles is 

 passed through another culendar, and each of the other parts is also 

 passed through a culendar ■ ■ - They are then varnished with 

 asphalt lacquer and then revulcanized for seven or eight hours at a tem- 

 peraiure of 260' F. The shoes are then ready to be sold. 



Of course, this is mighty interesting to the shoe clerks, and 

 if they could sell rub'aers, the stock for which was run through 

 a " culendar " (collander .'), " lacquered with asphalt," and " re- 

 vulcanized," they would be mighty good salesmen. But after 

 all it does not make much difference what the shoe clerk knows 

 of the details of manufacture if he has good rubbers and knows 

 how to fit them. He might claim they were made in a churn 

 and painted with black whitewash, and people would still con- 

 tinue to buy and would appreciate a good article when they 

 got it. 



An expensive automobile made to the order of the sultan 

 of Turkey was on exhibition lately in Paris. It is not surpris- 

 ing to hear since that the number of the sultan's wives has 

 been leduced 94 per cent. Presumably every one of the ladies 

 of the imperial harem, on seeing the gorgeous new rubbertired 

 vehicle, insisted on having one for herself, and net all the 

 revenues of the empire would have been sufficient to buy so 

 many. Funny, isn't it, that the invention of the automobile 

 may be a means towards the abolition of polygamy .' 



The state taxing authorities of Ohio having decided 

 that " good will" and "trade marks," when included in the 

 assets of a corporation, are assessable, the same as any other 

 property comprised in its capital account, the idea may be ex- 

 pected to find adoption in other states, with the effect of 

 greatly discouraging any tendency to overcapitalization on the 

 part of public companies. 



