July 1, 1913.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



511 



A Brazilian's Commentaries on the Akers Report. 



THE May number of The India Rubber World contained a 

 general review of the report of the Akers Commission, par- 

 ticularly with reference to that part of the report which 

 dealt with the findings of the commission in the Middle East. 

 The June issue contained a review of the Second Volume of 

 the Report, which is devoted to the Amazon Valley. Below 

 are some commentaries on the report, by a Brazilian, who for 

 many years has been prominent in the rubber trade and is very 

 familiar with the rubber industry of the Amazon. 



A haphazard reader of the Akers report would be puzzled 

 to trace its origin and might never obtain a proper explanation 

 of its reason for existence unless he learns all the facts that 

 have led to its publication. In this respect, it may be said to 

 be a unique publication. 



Such a report would need no explanation were it officially 

 hall-marked or recognized as an investigation conscientiously 

 made under Government direction. On the contrary, however, 

 it seems to be a sort of high-handed censure, set up by a pri- 

 vate individual for the special purpose of showing up the past 

 negligence of the government or driving it into further action, 

 at greater speed than it has been accustomed to move at in mat- 

 ters of this sort. 



Had this report been published before the promulgation of 

 the Federal Laws for the Economic Defense of Rubber, the 

 object of the publication might have, and perhaps would have, 

 been accepted as a kindly indication of what might be done 

 by the Government to improve the native rubber industries of 

 the Amazon. But after the promulgation of those laws, all 

 of which it recapitulates at the end. this publication has a 

 tinge of inopportune obtrusion that rather spoils its otherwise 

 good features. But the report may have been published to assist 

 the safe launching of a special company to undertake a colon- 

 ization scheme in the lower Amazon. It looks as though it were 

 specially worded to suit the needs of an attractive prospectus, 

 meant to enlist the support of foreign capitalists in a certain 

 direction. 



.About 1907 there appeared the first symptoms of the com- 

 petition which rubber grown in Asia tlireatened to put up against 

 Brazil at no distant date. 



About that time Mr. J. J. G. Vianna published a series of ar- 

 ticles in the Para press, calling attention to the necessity which 

 existed for all interested in the native rubber industry to pre- 

 pare to meet the competition of the East. 



A volume entitled "\ Crise Amazonica" was written by Mr. 

 J. A. Mendes, siiowing the defective methods under which native 

 rubber was exploited, and inciting the Government to take steps 

 to escape the dangers which were ahead by favoring the fiscal 

 and commercial reforms that were necessary. 



Mr. J. Simao da Costa was also a champion of the cause of 

 the said reform, and under the heading of "Rational Valorisation 

 of Rubber," proved that in planting rubber abundantly, as near 

 as possible to the Atlantic ocean, in the state of Para, and by 

 cheapening the cost of living and of transportation in the whole 

 region, lay the only hope of the Amazon's being able to hold 

 its ow-n against the middle East plantation rubber. This, of 

 course, on condition that the government lent its credit and pres- 

 tige to the undertaking. All these writers were unanimous in 

 denouncing the excessive hardships of the export taxes on rub- 

 ber producers and the exorbitant rates of freights prevailing. 

 The Chamber of Commerce of Para also presented a memorial 

 to the Chamber of Deputies nf the Federal Union pointing out 

 the excessive customs duties which were levied on all imported 

 necessaries of life. 



If we now turn to the Report itself and its intrinsic value. 



it must be acknowledged that Mr. Akers did all that he was 

 asked to do, to the best of his ability. 



As regards the tapping modifications he has tried to intniduce 

 in fifty different seringaes, within a distance of seven thousand 

 miles, it takes more optimism than we are accustomed to meet, 

 even in the Amazon country, to feel confident that any consider- 

 able increase of the production will result therefrom. The 

 chances are that nothing but the pleasant recollection of Mr. 

 Akers' passage now remains at the spots he visited. We doubt 

 whether Mr. Akers had time enough to study the philosophic 

 temperament of the average -Amazonian rubber gatherer and how 

 prone he is to follow the lines of least resistance. 



The tapping of rubber trees in the East is still an open ques- 

 tion, and of course while there are hopes that some inventive 

 genius will some day devise the proper mechanical means by 

 which the extraction of the most latex with the least possible 

 danger to the tree will be accomplished, no one can assert at 

 present that the method Mr. Akers tried to introduce in the 

 -Amazons is the very best, nor the last word on the subject. His 

 suggestion for the planting of vegetables along the margins of 

 the Amazon is now followed up to the utmost ability of those who 

 have Estradas right by the river banks. But Mr. Akers could not 

 expect men to tap rubber ten and fifteen kilometers (six to ten 

 miles) off the borders of the rivers and at the same time culti- 

 vate lands on these borders. 



As regards Theobroma Cacao, Mr. Akers would be surprised 

 to learn that the Government of Para issued a booklet, writ- 

 ten by Mr. J. Simao da Costa and Dr. J. Huber, teaching how 

 best to plant cocoa and prepare same for export. No ap- 

 preciable improvement has taken place up to the present, as the 

 result of this propaganda, because labor for carrying out plan- 

 ting operations cannot be obtained economically. 



The Amazon's evils have been correctly and conscientiously ex- 

 posed in a lecture delivered at the Engineers' Club at Rio de Jan- 

 eiro by Mr. J. Simao da Costa and may be summed up as follows : 



1. Lack of sufficient capital to undertake all the necessary 

 reforms to place the native rubber gathering industry on a 

 sounder footing, industrially and commercially. 



2. Lack of technical knowledge on the part of the manage- 

 ment of the above industries. 



3. Natural drawbacks brought about by the extent of territory 

 which must be traveled over before reaching seringaes, the un- 

 healthy nature of these, and the great distances between trees 

 that arc tapped. 



And the only remedies for such evils were also suggested, 

 and are as follows: 



1. The undertaking of intensive planting of the Hez-ea tree, 

 side by side with every other branch of tropical agriculture, at 

 the most suitable places near the Atlantic Ocean and under 

 government assistance and supervision, and for the benefit of 

 the whole community. 



The series of measures the government has promised to 

 undertake, and is carrying out to the best of its abihty, are all 

 indirect methods of cheapening cost of living and transporta- 

 tion, but the benefits to be derived can only be felt after a 

 lapse of many years. It is evident, therefore, that the greatest 

 benefit that could be created for the whole region would be the 

 planting of enough trees to produce, under modern methods 

 and by carefully taught laborers, as much rubber from Para 

 plantations as the wild rubber which the -Amazon is now ship- 

 ping, leaving the upriver seringaes to be exploited, as long as 

 it would pay those whose primitive habits could never be 

 changed by law, or by the spreading of printed instructions, 

 which they cannot read and would never be willing to follow. 



