Septemrkr 1. 1913.1 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



627 



Interesting Letters From Our Readers. 



WHAT LONDON RUBBER SCHOOLS ARE DOING. 



A\ editorial which appeared in the June issue of The 

 Inuia Ri'BBER World, entitled "The Best Rubber School," 

 has attracted the attention of some of those interested in 

 teclmical rubber instruction in English schools, as is shown 

 by the letter reproduced below, from Frederick Kaye, 

 A. R. C. Sc, Lecturer on the Chemistry of Rubber in the North- 

 ern Polytechnic Institute, HoUoway, London: 



Research & Analytical Laboratory, 

 2, St. Duns'tan's Hill 

 London, E. C, June 23, 1913. 



The Editor Indi.\ Rubber World. 

 New York. 



Dear Sir: 



In your June number you make some comments upon the in- 

 auguration of the School of Rubber at the Northern Polytechnic 

 Institute, HoUoway, London. Perhaps you will be interested to 

 know that the courses on rubber chemistry, ruliher manuf;icture, 

 and analysis, etc., are fulfilling a very useful role in Hnsland. 

 There has never been any idea of taking the place of the real 

 practical school of the factory of which you speak so well. 



It should be remembered, however, that London is the centre 

 of a world-wide Iniancial and commercial activity associated with 

 the production, importation, sale and distribution of crude rub- 

 ber, as well as having many important rublier factories within its 

 borders. The directorates of the innumerable rubber producing 

 companies are constantly needing young men to go abroad as 

 plantation assistants on many of the Eastern plantations. 

 Hitherto most of these young men have gone out without any 

 scientific knowledge of rubber and its production. 



The students who have enrolled themselves at the School of 

 Rubber have found the opportunities it affords of great service 

 to them. .Amongst the students taking the day course are sons 

 of rubber manufacturers, who arc intended to take a place in 

 their father's factory or laboratory; young foremen of rubber 

 works wishing to widen their knowledge on the scientific side; 

 young men preparing for plantation appointments, as well as 

 assistant chemists home from the East, using the opportunity 

 to keep pace with the scientific advancements in Europe and to 

 take up some parts of practice and theory which experience has 

 shown they need. 



The evening students, who arc by far the most numerous, 

 are all men actively engaged in some branch of the rubber in- 

 dustries. They are foremen of works, travellers for rubber 

 brokers, chemists, or rubber manufacturers, samplers at the 

 wharves, clerks in rubber offices, etc. These all find that the 

 scientific study of methods of manufacture, and of the materials 

 which they are dealing with daily, is of great help commercially. 



Your esteemed journal is, in a sense, a school of rubber, while 

 our school is a personal, immediate, practical one. 



Yours faithfully. 



Frederick K.\ye, 

 Lecturer on the Chemistry of Rubber, Northern Polytechnic In- 

 stitute. HoUoway, London. 



ANOTHER VIEW OF THE PUTUMAYO MATTER. 



July 10, 1913. 

 To the Editor of The India Rubber World: 



Dear Sir: In your July issue, the following paragraph occurs 

 under "House of Commons Committee on Putumayo Horrors:" 



"The committee further expresses the l)elief that the Putu- 

 mayo incidents are but a shocking instance of the conditions 

 that are found over a wide area in South .\merica." 



As a manager of a large rubber property in the Amazon basin 

 for over five years, permit me to make a few observations on this 

 so-called inquiry into alleged atrocities. 



First of all, I may state that no person in the Amazon Valley, 

 intimately connected with the conditions surrounding the ex- 

 ploitation of wild rubber, believes the statements in the Casement 

 Report, the basis of which is testimony given by Indians, half 



breeds, Barbadian negroes and some whites who had ulterior 

 motives in formulating such allegations. 



Any sane person must see at a glance that as the report states 

 the Arana Estate had to give advances to the rubber pickers in 

 order to get supplies of rubber, it would be worse than folly to 

 injure or destroy the debtors of the company, after they had the 

 advances mentioned, to say nothing of it bemg bad business. 



In all my experience 1 have only heard of one company 

 that abused the Indians in the Amazon Valley; and curiously 

 enough, it was an English company, with the usual tilled 

 person for a chairman. This company used to make raids on 

 the outlying portions of its neighbors' property, surprise the 

 Indian rubber pickers, seize them, take them to the English 

 property and there place them in the stocks, for safety for a 

 time, then place them away in a Barraca to pick rubber for 

 their company. This illegal seizure was made under the 

 pretence that the said Indians were indebted to the English 

 company. 



It is true that abuses creep into every administration of a 

 property where it is situated far away from headquarters, diffi- 

 cult of access ; and those aliuses are aggravated when the com- 

 pany has to depend on an ignorant half-breed batch of superin- 

 tendents. 



While one hears a great deal from the EngHsh press of the 

 alleged Putumayo atrocities, they say nothing about the ad- 

 vantages a rubl)er picker enjoys w-ho works under the Amazon 

 conditions, and how much better off he is than the Eastern 

 plantation coolie, or even better off than the best paid 

 Fnglish mechanic. 



Take my own case. On assuming the management of the 

 property 1 found some minor abuses against the Indians, by the 

 half-breed overseers, but the greatest abuses were against the 

 company itself. I fired everybody, broke up the contract system, 

 and dealt with the rubber pickers as individuals, and placed over 

 them reliable overseers ; in addition to making other alterations. 



The result of this system was that each rubber picker was 

 dealt with as an individual ; and they came to the property of 

 their own volition, walking over the worst trails in the world, 

 for several days, in order to reach it. 



On arrival at headquarters on the property, the picker, without 

 any agreement beyond his word of honor, was given rations, a 

 shot-gun and rubber picking tools; and from ISO to 300 trees to 

 pick (this latter varying according to the ability and activity of 

 tlie picker) ; and then he disappeared into the forest to carry on 

 his work. The only superintendence he had was to see that the 

 trees were properly picked without destroying them, and that he 

 did not get sick; and if he did to bring him into the headquarters, 

 treat him and cure him free of charge. Every week, the picker 

 delivered the rubber he had picked to headquarters, sometimes 

 making the deliveries every two weeks or longer according to 

 distances he must travel. 



On delivery the rubber is weighed on a Fairbanks scale (the 

 weigher being a fellow rubber picker). The amount received is 

 credited to the picker, and an entry made in a small book, given 

 to him for this purpose. He then goes to the store, taking his 

 book along, and after he makes his purchases he is debited with 

 same in his book. The account is balanced at once, and if he 

 has a balance in his favor he can draw it out in cash at once, or 

 leave it until the end of the picking season, which they usually do. 

 After making his deliveries of rubber and purchases of merchan- 

 dise, and the entries being made in his book, they are copied in 

 the journal and ledger, and the book handed back to the picker, 

 who takes it to the forest with him again, until he comes out 

 with the next delivery of rubber. 



In addition to the above, and as a part of the system, a good 

 druggist and medical outfit are kept on hand, and all is free to 

 everyone on the property. No alcohol or cocaine is allowed or 

 permitted to be used by the pickers or others ; and the manage- 

 ment sees tliat the pickers are well fed. 



The result of this treatment, physically, industrially and finan- 

 cially, is that the pickers who arrived on the Hacienda in a half- 

 starved condition, sometimes sick and always "broke," have their 

 productive capacity increased from 50 per cent, to 100 per cent. 

 They are kept in good health and spirits, have ambition to work 

 and acquire something; and there has never been a rubber picker 

 w-ho has left the property, at the end of the season, without 

 a substantial balance of cash in his pocket, varying from $100 

 to $500. Lfnited States currency. Any picker who cares to work 

 fifteen days out of the month can earn from two to five dollars 



