396 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 1, 1913. 



The price of Upriver Para on the first day of April, 

 1910, was $2.70; in 1911, $1.39; 1912, $1.22, and 1913, 

 87 cents. In other words, the best crude rubber costs 

 today less than one-third of its cost three years ago. 



In addition to the two causes assigned for the reduc- 

 tion, there is a third not officially referred to, but probably 

 quite as potent as either of the others ; namely, the in- 

 creasing competition among tire makers. It is estimated 

 that for the present year the consumption of automobile 

 tires will reach 5,000,000. To supply that demand will 

 require an average daily output of about 17,000 tires. 

 There are two companies which have a combined daily 

 capacity equal to this number ; and besides these two 

 leading companies there are between forty and fifty 

 other tire manufacturers, some of them of no mean im- 

 portance. So it is obvious that the present capacity has 

 outstripped the present demand, and is likely to exceed 

 it for some time to come. This inevitably means that 

 lire prices cannot be kept very much above the figure 

 at which the best equipped companies can afiford to 

 market them. 



AN UN-AMERICAN WORD WITH A SINISTER 

 MEANING. 



THERE is nothing particularly repugnant to the 

 American mind in a fight per se. The average 

 American (w^hether creditable or otherwise) has rather 

 a soft spot in his heart for a good fight; but it must be a 

 fair fight, in the open and altogether square. 



In the fight that labor has been waging against capital 

 for a number of years — where the means employed have 

 been manly, open and decent — the laboring man has re- 

 ceived sympathetic consideration, not only from the dis- 

 interested public (as far as the public can be disinterested 

 in such a dispute) but from the employer himself. It 

 has been generally recognized that where the workman 

 had a grievance he was entitled to state it, and to be 

 heard, and to take any proper means for redressing that 

 grievance. 



But with the advent into our American labor situation 

 of this new alien organization, the Industrial Workers 

 of the World, methods have been introduced that do not 

 appeal to the American public, and there has come into 

 quite general use a new word, with a significance that is 

 altogether abhorrent to everybody who has any apprecia- 

 tion of fair play and decent dealings in every contest. 

 This word is "sabotage." In the recent strike among 

 the rubber workers of Akron, this word appeared quite 

 frequently. It is so new to our American vocabulary 

 that it does not appear in even the most recent editions 

 of the dictionaries. It comes from the French word 

 "sabot." a wooden shoe with the secondary meaning of an 

 iron drag placed under the carriage wheel to prevent it 

 from turning. Thus "sabotage" is the stopping of 

 the wheels. As used in labor discussions, "sabot- 

 age" is the doctrine of premeditated inefficiency 

 or maliciously doing the wrong thing, or let us say, of 

 doing your best to do your worst. It appears to be 



taught quite consistently by the leaders of the I. W. W., 

 and it means that their members, where they cannot efl^ect 

 their ends by open opposition, are to retain their posi- 

 tions in the factory; apparently doing the work for which 

 they are paid, but in reality doing it as badly as they can 

 — wasting their time, damaging the machinery, injuring 

 fabrics, or any other material that may be used, and in 

 every way open to them making it impossible for their 

 employer — whose money they are living on — to produce 

 satisfactory and marketable goods. It is, in short, a 

 process of poisoning the whole industrial system. 



Such a method as this is so contemptible, that no or- 

 ganization that employs it can expect to have any stand- 

 ing before the bar of American public opinion. Unfor- 

 tunately, it does not operate simply to the injury of the 

 organization that practises it, but must inevitably operate 

 to the injury of other organizations, which may be seek- 

 ing by perfectly proper and legitimate means to better 

 the working man's condition. 



From the manufacturers' standpoint, this new doctrine 

 is one that must be guarded against most vigilantly ; but 

 it is hardly probable that any important employer is not 

 fully alive to the seriousness of this new phase of the 

 labor problem, and is not taking all necessary steps to 

 nullify its malignant possibilities. 



CLEAN RUBBER IN BRAZIL. 



RUBBER washing in such centers as ]\Ianaos and 

 Para, in 'spite of the laws passed for the Dcfesa- 

 da Borracha, is not yet an accomplished fact. As the 

 matter stands, the successful bidders may at once erect 

 their factories and may wash such rubber as they can 

 get. There has as yet, however, been no law passed 

 making the washing of all rubber compulsory. Xor 

 has there been any arrangement looking toward a 

 government supervision and stamping of various lots. 

 In other words, the government is feeling its way, 

 with a view of doing only what will make the Brazil- 

 ian product both better and cheaper. 



It has always seemed to us that the place to clean 

 the rubber is at the seriugal. These seems to be no 

 good reason why clean latex, smoked in a clean man- 

 ner, should not produce clean pelles. Caucho, even if 

 it were brought into camp in wet, dirty masses, can be 

 cut into strips, then washed and stretched in any near- 

 by rivulet, and allowed to dry out to a degree. This 

 was successfully practiced on Panama rubber, which 

 sold for 15 cents a pound more than in its usual form. 



If the government would lower its export tax on 

 clean rubber and raise it on dirty rubber, the gatherers 

 would do the cleaning and reap the benefit. 



THE COST OF AUTO. SHOWS. 



THE Automobile Show held in Boston appears to 

 have been exceptionally successful, viewed both 

 from the standpoint of the exhibitor and of the visiting 

 public. This exhibition, being the last of the large auto- 



