176 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



January 1, 1913.] 



THE RIO DE JANEIRO 1913 EXPOSITION. 



RJO DE JANEIRO, a community of a milliun and 

 a quarter inhabitants, the finest city on the 

 South American continent — and by some travelers 

 called the most beautiful city in the world — is to have 

 a great International Exposition next May. It will be 

 held under the authority of the General Government 

 and will be under Federal auspices and control. It 

 will be held in substantial buildings erected for per- 

 manent use in the handsome park that surrounded the 

 [lalace of the Emperor Dom Pedro, the palace itself 

 being converted into a museum. This Rio de Janeiro 

 enterprise will be (in the words of the act creating it) 

 "an Exposition of large plantation products and the in- 

 dustry of vegetable extraction, viz., sugar, rubber and 

 fibres." While it is primarily a Brazilian exhibition, ex- 

 liibitors from the outside world will be warmly wel- 

 comed and their exhibits will be entered duty-free — 

 duty of course to be paid on them if they are sold in 

 that country after the conclusion of the show. 



This will be the best opportunity that the American 

 manufacturer ever had to show his wares in the great 

 Republic of the South. The balance of trade between 

 Brazil and the United States is all awry. According 

 to the latest available statistics the value of the im- 

 ports into the United States from Brazil amounts to 

 $124,000,000 a year, which is over ^i — or to be exact — 

 36.2 per cent, of the total amount of Brazilian exports. 

 But the proportion of Brazilian imports entering from 

 the United States onlj' amounts to 12.8 per cent., and 

 as the total Brazilian imports are in the neighborhood 

 of $200,000,000 that leaves the value of American goods 

 sold to Brazilians at about $25,000,000 a year — or one- 

 fifth of the amount of Brazilian goods sold to Amer- 

 icans. Obviously this is not as it should be, and the 

 coming Exposition ought to ofTer a good chance to 

 make a beginning, at least, toward evening up this 

 marked inequality. 



With the great industrial awakening now taking 

 place in Brazil there should be an excellent market for 

 mechanical rubber goods; and there is no reason why 

 Brazilians should not use as many druggists' sundries, 

 in proportion to population, as the people of the United 

 States. The automobile, too, has made its way into 

 all the Brazilian cities, and that should mean a con- 

 stantly increasing number of American tires. The 

 market for footwear is, of course, not so active in any 

 of the tropical countries as in regions of plentiful snow, 

 but even footwear in its lighter varieties ought to fine' 



a much larger sale in the great Empire of Brazil with 

 its many thriving cities than is now the case. In any 

 event, this would seem like a fine opportunity for the 

 American manufacturer of rubber goods to show the 

 South Americans what he has to oiler. 



DIGESTS OF THE RUBBER CONFERENCE PAPERS. 



AT the Third International Rubber Conference held, 

 in conjunction with the Rubber Exposition, in 

 New York in September and October last, 18 papers 

 were read on a great variety of topics — but all related 

 to the rubber industry — by men of acknowledged 

 authority in their particular field. We hope to publish 

 these papers in full in future numbers of this journal, 

 beginning with the February issue; but in a pre- 

 liminary way, and as giving a sort of bird's-eye view of 

 the whole subject matter of the Conference papers and 

 discussions, we publish in this issue digests of these 

 dift'erent papers. 



These digests follow as closely as possible the 

 thought of the author, but, of course, in the process of 

 condensation — attempting to reproduce in 500 words 

 a paper that in the original required 3,000 — it is quite 

 possible that full justice has not always been done the 

 subject or the author. Whatever inadequacy, however, 

 may be noted in these digests, will be atoned for, we 

 trust, by the full publication of these papers in later 

 issues. 



PLANTATIONS IN BRAZIL. 



AMONG the many interesting papers read at the Con- 

 ference held in conjunction with the recent Rubber 

 Exposition in New York — a digest of which appears in 

 this issue — there was a particularly valuable paper on 

 "The Present and Future of the Native Hevea Rubber 

 Industry in Brazil," by Dr. Jacques Huber, director of 

 the government museum at Para. He described in detail 

 the present situation of the rubber industry in Brazil. 

 He spoke of the great awakening that has recently taken 

 place in that country as to the necessity of immediate 

 activity, if the Brazilian superiority in the crude rubber 

 market is to be preserved ; and he reviewed the obstacles 

 that the Brazilians must overcome if they are to retain 

 their supremacy. 



It is obvious from Dr. Huber's paper that rubber plan- 

 tations in South America to be successful must be oper- 



