March i, 1903] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



181 



Publislied on the 1st of each Month by 



'Q^'"4''^^ 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBEISHING CO. 



No. 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YORK. 



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TABtft OF CONTENTS; 



Editorial: page. 



Will There Be Too Much Rubber 7 ...■ I8l 



A German Electrical Trust ■ 183 



The Bolivian Syndicate Checked ..-. .. 182 



Minor Editorial ...- 183 



Andrew Carnegie on Rubber 184 



The Adulteration of Guttapercha Octave J. A. Collet 186 



A Reliability Contest for Tires Suggested . - . A". Bradford Cogyeshull 187 



Solid vs. Pneumatic Tires in France J. W. Perru 188 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain 



Our Regular Corre»pondiiU 190 



[Improved Trade Prospects. Chemical Tubiog, Rubber in Locomo- 

 tive Engineering. Paraffin W"a,\ in Elastic Thread. Testing of In- 

 sulating Materials. Motor Tire Inteiests. Balata. Sulphur.] 



Preparing " Para Rubber " in Ceylon ...Francis J . Uonoivay 19iJ 



[With Three Illustrations.] 



American Rubber Planting Companies 193 



[Me.xico and Honduras ] 



Literature of India-Rubber 194 



India-Rubber Goods in Commerce ... ., ..-.. 195 



The World's Trade in Waste Rubber 196 



Jobbers as Distributors of Rubber Footwear ..Samuel P. Cult 197 



German Electrical Works Combining , 198 



Recent Rubber Patents [American, British, German] 199 



New Trade Publications 201 



Manaos Harbor Improvements L O. 202 



Miscellaneous : 



American Kubber Shoes in Scotland .... is3 



Success in Ketalling Rubber Goods 184 



Nfw Process for Worklnt; Balata 185 



Official Nonsense About Balaia .. 185 



What Becomes of all the Balata 185 



Automobile Trade of France ' .. .. 189 



Submarine Cables of the World 189 



Europeiin Rubber Notes . 2f'2 



Higher Prices for Rubber Goods 203 



The Demand for Rubber Shoes 203 



American Wood Tires in France 203 



Advertising " Boston" Rubbers Id Europe 203 



Some Wants of the Rubber Trade 2(ri 



The Textile Goods Market '.. 204 



News of the American Rubber Trade ..., 205 



Th.' Tr.me at .Akron Oh?- Co7-responden(, 209 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market 211 



WILL THERE BE TOO MUCH RUBBER? 



T N view of the amount of rubber planting now in pro. 

 •"■ gress the question has been asked — and it is a very 

 natural question — whether there is not danger of a new 

 source of supplies being created, out of all proportion to 

 the world's needs. In other words, whether the result 

 may not be overproduction of rubber to a degree that will 

 render the new planting interest unprofitable. 



If the consumption of rubber were a fi.xed quantity, 

 with a definite liinit already reached, caution might be 

 wise in the matter of providing new sources of supply. 

 But this is not the case. The consumption of rubber in 

 the LTnited States alone has doubled within seventeen 

 years, and from whatever standpoint the rubber industry 

 may be viewed, it gives promise of a more rapid rate of 

 expansion to come, with the many new uses of rubber, the 

 growth in population, and the greater buying capacity of 

 the people. The consumption has also become much 

 greater in other lands, and there yet remains a large part 

 of the world's population to become users of rubber goods. 

 Within twenty years the production of " Para " rubber has 

 increased threefold, and meanwhile the present enormous 

 supply from Africa has been developed. Yet such has 

 been the increase in demand that prices have tended con- 

 stantly upward, and market supplies are smaller to day 

 than for years past. 



The natural supply of rubber, on the other hand, is lim- 

 ited. There is no longer any unexplored country in which 

 rubber trees may be hoped to exist. There are forests 

 known to contain rubber which have not yet been "worked," 

 but these virgin fields are lessened in extent every year. 

 The gradual opening of new fields is offset in part by the 

 exhaustion of old ones. It is true that, under the more 

 intelligent supervision now given to them, the existing 

 rubber trees in Brazil and Bolivia, for example, may long 

 be conserved. Still there must come a time when all ex- 

 isting natural supplies will be taxed to their utmost, and 

 then, without new resources, the further growth of the 

 rubber industry will be impossible. No date for this situa- 

 tion can be fixed, of course, but its imminence certainly 

 appears to us to justify the planting of rubber. 



Several millions of rubber trees have been planted, thus 

 far, but so recently that only a few thousand have reached 

 a productive age. It is not reasonable to suppose that all 

 the others will reach maturity, for the reason that rubber 

 planting is a new interest, and as such liable to its share 

 of failures. The addition to the world's supply of rubber 

 from the existing plantations will be made gradually, as 

 each year's planting begins to yield, and is likely to be 

 required by the growing consuming demand. The same 

 consideration will apply to such planting as may be done 

 for a good many years to come. It must be remembered 

 that rubber can be cultivated successfully only within very 

 restricted limits. The territory in which rubber might 

 thrive is much wider, but the natural conditions preclude 

 undertakings there by outsiders, and render the collection 

 of wild rubber so difficult as to make the cost of the 

 product sometimes $2000 or more per ton. 



