342 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1902. 



pure gum was used very generally, and often with disas- 

 trous results. Later, when manufacturers came to know 

 how great a variety of ingredients could be incorporated in 

 rubber, it sometimes happened that the batch was " crowd- 

 ed " with adulterant to the detriment of the goods. Such 

 a course hurt the business at large to a degree, but indi- 

 vidual brands far more, and that soon corrected itself. 



At the present time it is easily susceptible of proof that 

 the average vulcanized rubber product contains a larger 

 percentage of rubber than twenty years ago; in fact, to add 

 more, would in many cases cause dissatisfaction on the part 

 of the buyer. This sounds like an extreme statement and 

 would be scoffed at by the ignorant, but it is nevertheless 

 true. Take the rubber shoe compounds, for example. 

 Years ago they contained plastic, white lead, and barytes, 

 in addition to the ingredients used to-day, together with 

 an amount of lampblack that was absurd. To-day the 

 manufacturers have evolved a simpler, more practical, less 

 loaded compound, and the product is far better. 



Then, too, instead of moving heaven and earth for new 

 earthy materials or metallic oxides, manufacturers have 

 come to use reclaimed rubber in their places, and further 

 have learned the value of African rubbers and many low 

 grade gums that a few years ago found no market. All 

 of these are rubber or rubber like, and in many cases take 

 the place of dry adulterants, and at the same time add a 

 definite quantity of Caoutchouc to the mass. 



GOVERNMENTS AND CABLE MAKING. 



"T^LTRING the recent discussion at Washington of Pa- 

 ''^ cific cable projects the assertion was made repeat- 

 edly that " there is no company in the United States with 

 experience in making and laying deep sea cables," and 

 this was urged against every suggestion toward the con- 

 struction of a cable with American capital, by American 

 labor, and under American control. At one time or an- 

 other a like assertion could have been made regarding 

 every branch of manufacture that has since been devel- 

 oped in United States. Not so many years ago no mod- 

 ern warships had been built here, but when it was deter- 

 mined to create a new navy, there was no hesitancy on 

 account of the fact that experience in such work was lack- 

 ing in this country. No such argument prevented the 

 signing of the contract for the great New York-Brooklyn 

 suspension bridge, or for the subway transit work now in 

 progress in New York, although the scope of these under- 

 takings was in excess of anything of the kind that had 

 before been attempted anywhere. 



It is worth noting that the financial success of the first 

 direct German-American cable, after only a year of work- 

 ing, has led to a determination to lay a duplicate cable. 

 The first cable was not built in Germany, because suf- 

 ficient facilities did not exist there, but the new cable, al- 

 ready under contract, will be built in that country — a line 

 of 4142 miles, at a cost of $5,000,000, which is a large 

 single order for a cable. There is nothing peculiar in the 

 submarine cable industry to prevent the rapid develop- 

 ment of facilities for it when a market exists for the prod- 



uct. The fact that a German cable factory has so 

 speedily been developed to the point of securing so large 

 an order is due to the sentiment of the people and of the 

 government being favorable, and as a result of this im- 

 portant order the new German cable factory will take a 

 long step forward as a competitor for cable building in 

 general. But in the United States, so long as the benefit 

 of every doubt is given to foreign cable makers, our cable 

 industry can hardly be expected to make such progress as 

 it might in more favorable circumstances — such, for in- 

 stance, as have been seen in Germany. 



THE REGULATION OF TRUSTS. 



"T^HE Trusts are to be attacked again. Congressman 

 •*■ Littlefield, of Maine, is after them with a sharp new 

 lance, giving out that he has a call to his mission from 

 the administration at Washington. From what can be 

 learned, his campaign contemplates four points of attack : 

 Federal control of all corporations engaged in interstate 

 commerce ; power for the government at all times to ob- 

 tain information as to the doings of such corporations ; 

 taxation of corporations having unpaid capital stock; reg- 

 ulation by the government of increase of capital stock. 



Until the first point has been gained, the others must 

 wait, and it is likely that several sessions will pass before 

 a congress yet to be elected undertakes to assume control 

 of manufacturing corporations because they happen to be 

 doing business in more than one state at the same time. 

 As for the second point, it follows that when the govern- 

 ment has taken control of the corporations it will have 

 power to obtain information ; this hardly constitutes a 

 separate ground of attack. The remaining points are 

 very indefinite, since the nominal amount of cajiital stock 

 of a corporation does not necessarily affect its methods of 

 doing business, and this is where the interest of the public 

 comes in, if at all. 



It seems to us that Mr. Littlefield should first prepare 

 the public for the proper appreciation of his campaign by 

 explaining just what he means by a Trust. Then when 

 the fight begins people will know just what are the ob- 

 jects of his attacks, and can better judge of the results. 

 There are a good many people who imagine that all rub- 

 ber interests whatsoever are controlled by the Rubber 

 Trust, and that prices of rubber goods all over the world 

 are fixed by it. And so with every other important industry. 

 Does Mr. Littlefield belong to this class? If he does it is 

 likely that he will see Trusts where a good many people 

 will not, just as the renowned Don Quixote charged vali- 

 antly upon supposed wicked giants, which to other eyes 

 were plain everyday windmills. 



Economic development is bound to proceed in the di- 

 rection which tends to the ultimate greatest good, regard- 

 less of legislative enactments. If the best efforts in indus- 

 trial production are to be attained through consolida- 

 tions of capital, this tendency can no more be prevented 

 than the procession of the equinoxes ; if the contrary is 

 true, there will be a natural return to the old regime, in 

 spite of legislation one way or another. But there have 



