THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October I. 1912. 



THE EUROPEAN COTTON MARKET. 



A MOXCi tlie leading European consumers of Anier- 

 ** ican cotton, are the si^inners of Germany and 

 Austria. Owing to their constant and intimate rela- 

 tions with cotton manufacturers, spinners are in a po- 

 siticm to forecast trade prospects from the point of 

 view of consumption, as well as to form a more or less 

 accurate idea of the speculative influences likelj- to 

 affect the market. 



Hence special interest attaches tn the recent state- 

 ments of the managing director of the Bamberg (Ba- 

 varia) Spinning Mills, and of the president of the Aus- 

 trian Cotton Spinners' Association, Vienna, two of the 

 most representative European authorities on the sub- 

 ject named. 



The Bavarian director asks whetlier the 16-million 

 bale crop is really insui^cient to cover the wants of 

 spinners, and whether the growing cotton is in a con- 

 dition which leads to the expectation of higher prices 

 through insufficiency of supply. While he considers 

 these questions justified, he calls attention to the fact 

 that nearly all private reports state that the area sown 

 in cotton this year in the American cotton states, is 

 only to an unimportant extent smaller than that of 

 last year. At the same time, he refers to the effect 

 which the cold and damp weather of the spring may 

 have exercised upon the final result. Seeing, however, 

 that planting conditions have been statistically favor- 

 able, speculators have only the weather to consider as a 

 basis of operations for a rise. 



The nominal quantity of 16 million bales for the 

 crop of 1911-1912, he considers, on account of its de- 

 fective quality for manufacturing purposes, can only 

 be regarded as the equivalent of 15 million bales. As 

 this quantity has proved sufficient, he urges that even 

 should the new crop turn out to be only 13j^ million 

 bales, it would meet the absolute requirements of the 

 world's spinning industry. The hopes which had been 

 entertained of the German cotton yarn business in 

 1912 do not seem to have been fulfilled, and the posi- 

 tion of German spinners is much worse than it was 

 a year ago. 



In the Austrian cotton spinning industry, the over- 

 production of recent years has led to radical measures. 

 Under the auspices of the spinners' association, 90 

 leading Austrian spinning mills have come to an 

 agreement for the regulation of production. This 

 agreement does not apply to production generally, but 

 to the share of the various mills in the domestic con- 

 sumption of yarn, and the production of the quantities 

 thus allotted. Thus the export trade of Austrian spin- 

 ners does not apparently come under the new agree- 



ment, which is intended to stop the losses which have 

 arisen in the past from unrestrained competition in 

 the liome market. 



As a leading German textile joi'irnal puts it, the 

 further development of the cotton market is "a book 

 with seven seals." AuKuig the factors meriting con- 

 sideration, besides the weather and the attitude of 

 spinners, is the .consumption of next year. The con- 

 sumption of yarn in 1912 having exceeded that of 1911 

 by 10 per cent., it is urged that weavers' stocks have 

 probably been replenished, so that a further increase 

 in consumption is not anticipated for 1913. 



TWO MONTHS FOR COUNTERFEITING A TRADE 



MARK. 



AN interesting trade-mark case recently occurred in 

 Russia, as reported in the Bulletin published by 

 the United States Trade Mark Association. Five direc- 

 tors of a certain Russian rubber company have been ad- 

 judged guilty of counterfeiting the trade-mark of a 

 German company, and each has been sentenced to a term 

 of two months in jail. 



The Russian trade-mark law provides that any dealer 

 or manufacturer who makes unauthorized use upon his 

 goods, wrappers, labels or in any of his advertising, of 

 another's trade-mark, or who uses a trade-mark so 

 closely resembling another's that it is likely to be mis- 

 taken for it, is liable to a maximum penalty of eight 

 months' imprisonment. 



We have been in the habit of considering ourselves 

 much in advance of Russia in our standards of ethics, 

 but here is a case where we may well learn a lesson from 

 the subjects of the Czar. There has been far too much 

 laxity in the way of copyright infringement. Many a 

 manufacturer — and this is quite applicable to the rubber 

 trade — has built up an enviable reputation through years 

 of honorable achievement and given his trade-mark a 

 great commercial value, only to have some not too scru- 

 pulous concern enter the field and deliberately adopt a 

 trade-mark so similar as to make it inevitable that the 

 trade, particularly the consuming trade, would confuse 

 the two, the newcomer hoping in this way to reap what 

 another has sown. A few months in jail for the directors 

 of a company that seeks to embezzle the reputation of 

 another company, would be a wholesome object 

 lesson. 



It may be added, however, that there has been a gen- 

 eral improvement in regard to this matter in this coun- 

 try. Some years ago the manufacturer whose trade- 

 mark rights were infringed could get very little redress 

 in the courts. Judges are now disposed to treat these 

 complaints more seriously, and in addition to this fact 

 there is a constantly growing sense of business honor, 

 that entirely apart from the legal aspects of the matter, 

 tends to bring this form of dishonesty into increasing 

 disrepute. 



