April 1, 1913] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



341 



and it would naturally draw its student supply, not 

 only from the mother country, but from the surround- 

 ing islands, from South America and from North 

 America. And herein lies an important feature — the 

 establishment of an institute conveniently at hand, 

 where young men from the United States could be 

 thoroughly equipped for successful agricultural opera- 

 tions, either in foreign lands, or in the American trop- 

 ical possessions — Porto Rico, the Philippines and the 

 Hawaiian Islands. It is this feature of it that makes 

 this discussion of special interest to Americans. In 

 the I'hilippines and the Hawaiian Islands we have ex- 

 tremel}' valuable possessions, but the young man who 

 goes to either one of these islands to seek his fortune 

 goes absolutely unequipped, and has to acquire the 

 knowledge necessary for success through the slow 

 processes of observation and experience. If he could 

 take a three or four years' course in a well equipped 

 tropical agricultural college it would be a wonderful 

 saving of time and energy. 



English colonists have been talking about this agri- 

 cultural institute for many years, but now they are 

 talking about it with greatly increased earnestness. 

 It is to be hoped that it will soon materialize and that 

 its materialization will take place at some spot like 

 Trinidad where it will naturally attract American 

 patronage and support. 



While such an institution — a thoroughly equipped 

 tropical agricultural university — would greatly help all 

 the industries of the tropics — the production of sugar, 

 cacao, fruits and the other products of the equatorial 

 belt, it would, undoubtedly, be of the greatest benefit 

 to the industry of rubber planting, which has such 

 tremendous possibilities in a vast territory — some of 

 it belonging to the United States — where as yet hardly 

 a start has been made. 



THE ANNUAL LEGISLATIVE RAID ON THE AUTO. 



IT is hardly to be expected that any State legislature 

 *■ would close its session without "taking a fall" out 

 of the auto. But the New York legislature during the 

 month of March certainly established the record. Its 

 members introduced twenty different bills placing various 

 prohibitions and penalties on the use of the auto. The 

 very volume of this proposed legislation was its undoing, 

 because it provoked such a storm of protest from the 

 automobile owners of the State — and there are 100,000 of 

 them — and brought so many hundred representatives of 



various organizations to Albany to voice their objections 

 by personal presence, that the greater part of these laws 

 were buried — temporarily at least — in committee. 



But one of the most pernicious of them, affecting the 

 manufacturer and dealer and ultimately the consumer, was 

 rushed through both houses, and that is a law providing 

 for the dating of automobile tires, and reading as fol- 

 lows : "No person or corporation shall manufacture, sell, 

 offer or expose for sale in this State a tire for use on a 

 motor vehicle unless the date when such tire was manu- 

 factured shall 1)c impressed or branded upon the material 

 of which such tire is constructed, or otherwise indicated 

 by label securely attached thereto." 



This act was introduced a year ago, and after some dis- 

 cussion and amendment disappeared from view. But the 

 Hon. Christy Sullivan, a statesman representing the lower 

 East Side of New York City, penetrated into the legis- 

 lative mausoleum and brought forth this presumably de- 

 funct issue. It was galvanized into life — by what vivify- 

 ing influences it cannot be stated — and as said above, it 

 was rushed through the Assembly and the Senate, and at 

 present writing lies on the Governor's desk for his action. 



The effect of this act would be to reward dishonesty 

 and penalize honesty ; for the dealer who had not yet en- 

 tered upon the ethical life would simply put new tags on 

 old tires and pocket the profits, while the honest dealer 

 would, naturally, want to avoid any tires dated more than 

 two or tfirce months back; and in consequence the manu- 

 facturer would be exceedingly careful not to get much of 

 a supply of tires ahead. During the dull months, when 

 he naturally would be making up a stock for the brisker 

 months to come, he would close down and wait till the 

 market revived. The result of this would be, of course, 

 to make the manufacture of tires materially more ex- 

 pensive, and to advance the price proportionately to the 

 consumer. 



It is a totally unnecessary piece of legislation, because 

 the guarantee given by practically all important tire mak- 

 ers, covering their best-grade tires, is adequate protection 

 to the consumer that he will get the tire service he is pay- 

 ing for. In addition to this guarantee, it is. of course, a 

 truism to state that every reputable tire maker is quite as 

 anxious to have his product prove satisfactory as the 

 purchaser of that product is. If a maker's tiree go wrong 

 the consumer suft'ers simply to the extent of the one or 

 possibly four tires that he has purchased, but the maker 

 suffers to the extent tliat his reputation, on which his con- 

 tinued prosperity is based, is seriously damaged. No tire 

 maker of any standing wants his name on tires of an un- 

 satisfactory character. 



