December 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



131 



the recent rubber show — which were reported in our 

 November issue — a good deal of stress was laid upon 

 the desirability of having rubber shipments from the 

 Middle East come direct to New York rather than 

 having them go, as now, to London, Liverpool, or 

 some continental point, to be re-shipped in new pack- 

 ages. This matter was given quite an extended men- 

 tion in Mr. Baxendale's report to the Planters' Asso- 

 ciation of Malaya, written at the conclusion of the 

 rubber show — an abstract of which appears in this 

 issue. 



Special emphasis was laid upon the two great dis- 

 advantages in the present system of shipment to Eu- 

 rope and re-shipment to New York; namely, that the 

 identity of the rul^ber was largel}' lost, as it came to 

 New York in mixed packages; and further that the re- 

 packing was often carelessly done, resulting in the 

 receipt of the rubber at this port in very much poorer 

 condition than would have been the case if it had 

 been shipped direct. In Mr. Baxendale"s report he 

 speaks of a New York importer who showed him a 

 small parcel of plantation rubber containing a most 

 heterogeneous mixture of crepe of every conceivable 

 shade. 



There is no sound reason whatever for this unneces- 

 sary handling of plantation rubber on its way to New 

 York. It is attributable simply to the fact that until 

 within the last three or four years plantation rubber 

 had not assumed very considerable proportions, so 

 that New York importers had not given it serious con- 

 sideration. But that situation is now changed. In 

 1911 New York imported 6,590 tons of plantation rub- 

 ber, and in the first eight months of the present 3-ear 

 these imports had increased to over 8,000 tons; and 

 with the very rapid increase in plantation production 

 — which in 1912 will easily double the output of 

 1911 — this question assumes a condition of such im- 

 portance, that it is hardly credible that the present 

 system will be much longer continued. 



Considering the fact that America is using three 

 and a half times as much rubber as England, three 

 times as much as Germany, and five times as much as 

 France, there hardly seems any reason why crude 

 rubber should be shipped to any port in any of those 

 countries to be re-shipped from that point to this 

 great center of consumption. Moreover, the present 

 outlook is that America's proportionate consumption 

 of rubber will still further increase. The automobile 

 manufacturers are planning a production of 600,000 



cars for 1913, which, with the cars which will be in 

 use from the product of earlier years, will make a 

 total number certainly' in excess of 1,000,000, and it 

 is a conservative estimate to place the necessary tire 

 production for 1913 at 5,000,000 tires. There seems to 

 be no good reason, therefore, why the present indirect 

 and wasteful shipment of plantation rubber to New 

 York should be continued. Direct shipments mean 

 expedition and economy, and they would enable Ameri- 

 can manufacturers to get what the plantation ships 

 them, and not some indiscriminate mixture concocted 

 in Europe. 



ENGLISH MANUFACTURERS ALARMED. 



XT EWS comes across the water that tlie English man- 

 ufacturers of automobiles arc greatly alarmed over 

 the large and constantly increasing number of low and 

 medium-priced American cars which are being sold to 

 the people living on that island. It is stated that at a re- 

 cent conference, 15 or 20 of these manufacturers met 

 and agreed to organize a company with a capital of 

 $25,000,000, to manufacture inexpensive cars to meet this 

 American competition. 



It is quite likely that their fears are not groundless, 

 because the low-priced car has proved exceedingly attract- 

 ive in this country, and would naturally make the same 

 appeal to people on the other side. The Ford company, 

 whose product is of the less expensive sort, are said to 

 be manufacturing at a rate that will bring their produc- 

 tion for the present year up to 75,000 cars, and it is fur- 

 ther stated that they are making plans to increase this 

 voluminous output to something like 200,000 for the com- 

 ing year. And other makers of low and medium-priced 

 cars are rapidly increasing their production facilities ; so 

 that the number of cars of this class likely to invade Eng- 

 land during the coming year will greatly exceed those of 

 any previous invasion. 



Two methods are suggested by the English for meeting 

 these inroads on their trade — first, as stated above, the 

 formation of a large corporation in which many of them 

 are to be jointly interested for manufacturing cars of low 

 cost; and, second, an appeal to the government to put 

 a prohibitive tarifif on American automobiles. Neither 

 move is likely to be very effective. Obviously, if English 

 manufacturers could compete in this department of auto- 

 mobile production profitably, they would naturally em- 

 bark upon it without waiting for the organization of any 

 combination ; and if they cannot compete profitably by in- 



