182 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March i, 1903. 



It must be expected that, ultimately, the success of 

 rubber planting will result in lower prices, but not neces- 

 sarily to the disadvantage of the planter. We have quot- 

 ed Mexican rubber lately at 68 cents a pound, which means 

 $1500, gold, per metrical ton. If rubber planting is going 

 to succeed at all, it is not going to cost $1500, or half of 

 it, to prepare and market a ton of products, and at much 

 lower market rates there ought to be a good profit. At 

 the same time every material decrease in the cost of rubber 

 is bound to give a new impetus to consumption. This 

 page would not hold a list of the practical uses for rubber 

 which are held in check today by the high cost of the raw 

 material. But when people once become accustomed to a 

 new use of rubber, in which they are encouraged at first 

 by low cost, they do not give it up later if obliged to pay 

 more for the article. A reasonable expectation, therefore 

 is that if rubber prices should, in time, be depressed ma- 

 terially from the present level, the effect will be such an 

 increase in consumption as to check the fall and soon 

 create an upward tendency. This sort of fluctuation may 

 be the continual experience of future generations of rub- 

 ber planters, but it is a consideration too remote for those 

 who are engaging in the business today. 



Finally, if the rubber planters are alive to their oppor- 

 tunity, they will produce an article superior to many rub- 

 ber grades now marketed, and obtain better prices. Then, 

 if the market should become overstocked, the last sorts to 

 feel the depression will be the carefully prepared planta- 

 tion products, which will be preferred by manufacturers at 

 good prices to badly cured, dirt filled, and foul smelling 

 rubber, collected by natives in their primitive way, and 

 now used in the factory through necessity. It might be 

 suggested that people have been cultivating rice and 

 wheat and other crops, and making iron and cloth and 

 leather, for some thousands of years, and that in none of 

 these lines has overproduction ever resulted to such an 

 extent as to render the work unprofitable, taken as a 

 whole, or unprofitable anywhere for a long continued pe- 

 riod. 



sale of products at any price to secure business. On an- 

 other page is noted a policy of consolidation of the leading 

 German electrical firms, for the purpose of reducing capi- 

 talization, restricting reckless competition, maintaining 

 prices, and taking the direction of business out of the hands 

 of speculative interests — the outcome of which may be a 

 lesson of value to the rubber industry as a whole. 



The world will continue to need more electrical equip- 

 ment, rather than less, all of which will call for more rub- 

 ber for insulation, and it is to the interest of producers in 

 every country that the industry everywhere should be on 

 a conservative business basis — a sound capitalization and 

 fair profits for everything sold. Under the new conditions 

 in Germany, instead of many concerns competing for ev 

 erything in sight, each factory will be devoted to supply- 

 ing what it can best produce, and this degree of speciali- 

 zation may bring more satisfaction to customers and larger 

 profits for manufacturers, without necessarily raising prices 

 beyond reason. It all amounts to a Trust, however, and 

 the biggest trust connected with the whole rubber trade. 



A GERMAN ELECTRICAL TRUST. 



T^HE German electrical industries have proved such an 

 •^ important factor in increasing the consumption of 

 India-rubber that they must be taken into account in any 

 estimate of the rubber industry in that country. The great 

 modern electrical development began just in time to aid 

 Germany in making a long step in industrial advance, and 

 the fullest advantage was taken of it, thanks to the high 

 degree of technical ability for which that country has be- 

 come noted. The best ideas were drawn upon from every 

 quarter, and not only has Germany supplied herself with 

 electrical apparatus for countless uses, but her exports 

 have supplied a great part of the outside world beside. 



The very liberal profits of the leading electrical manu- 

 facturers — dividends on as high as 15 per cent, were paid 

 on inflated capitalizations — naturally led to a productive 

 capacity which, when a period of depression began, could 

 not be kept profitably employed, and the result was the 



THE BOLIVIAN SYNDICATE CHECKED. 



nr HE latest advices respecting the Acre are that Bolivia 

 ■* consents to the military occupation and administra- 

 tion of the district by Brazil, pending a peaceful settlement 

 of the question of ownership. Bolivia has considered her 

 authority in this territory to have been formally recognized 

 by Brazil, while the latter country asserts to the contrary. 

 The population of Acre consists mainly of Brazilians who 

 have ventured there in search of rubber ; the country is 

 next to inaccessible from the Bolivian capital ; and its only 

 outlet is through Brazilian waters which have never been 

 declared open for navigation by other countries. So long 

 as the rubber trade of this region contributed to the prof- 

 its solely of Brazilians the latter felt little concern about 

 its political control, especially as it was practically without 

 government. 



But no sooner was a concession of this territory granted 

 to the Bolivian Syndicate, on terms which would divert 

 profits to other channels, than protests were made by the 

 government, the people, and the press of Brazil, which 

 country is in a position to thwart any effort to exploit the 

 concession. Bolivia being powerless to defend her claims 

 with arms, her hope has been that diplomatic influence by 

 the countries whose citizens are interested in the conces- 

 sion might be brought to bear upon Brazil in her behalf. 

 Failing this, she must submit to arbitration the question of 

 title to what was already presumably part of her public 

 domain. 



llie immediate interest of the rubber trade in the matter 

 lies in the prospect that the suspension of rubber gather- 

 ing on the Acre since the dispute arose over the Bolivian 

 concession may end soon. The production of this district 

 at times has reached 2000 or 3000 tons per year. But any 

 hope that, under the extensive enterprises planned by the 

 Bolivian Syndicate, the rubber output from the Acre would 

 be greatly expanded, must be given up for the present. 

 There is no doubt that with improved transportation facil- 



