606 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September 1, 1913. 



This certainly was a tremendous undertaking, or 

 would be if it were carried out — but, as a matter of 

 fact, it is not. We forbid other nations from making 

 any show of force in the protection of their interests 

 or those of their subjects, practically guaranteeing that 

 we will look after their interests for tliein and see that 

 the peace is kept and that order is maintained, lint 

 do we do it? Is not this part of the Monroe Doctrine 

 — the fultilling of our obligation to see that general 

 order is luaintained — mo.stly a pretense? Take Mex- 

 ico, for instance. 



It is not necessary to dilate upcin the cundition of 

 alTairs in Mexico during the last three years, and par- 

 ticularly during the last twelve months. If there 

 were no Monroe Doctrine, the powers, by concerted 

 action, in order to protect their citizens and tlieir in- 

 terests in Mexico, would undoubtedly have quelled 

 the disorder in that republic long ago. We would not 



WHEN RUBBER SOLD FOR 25c. 



A 



SALESMAN connected with one of the automo- 

 bile companies, in explaining the high cost of 

 rubber tires recently, charged it to the fad that increase 

 in the demand for rubber has far outstripped the in- 

 crease in its sui)])ly, and made these two statements: 

 "The natural rubber sources are no greater today than 

 a centiu\- ago. Some of the older rubber manufactur- 

 ers are paying four or live tiiues as nnich for line rub- 

 ber as when they first entered the business." 



At first thought one would be inclined to doubt the ac- 

 curacy, or even the approximate accuracy, of both of these 

 assertions, but on second thought it would have to be con- 

 ceded that the statements are closely in harmony with the 

 truth. Interpreting "natural sources of rubber" as those 

 for which nature is solely responsible, as distinguished 

 froiu those started by the hand of man, it is probably 

 not only true that the natural rubber supply is no greater 



than it was a century ago, but it might be stated with 

 permit them to make any move, on the theory that the perfect safety that the natural sources of supply are 

 restoration of order in that unhappy country was our even less than they were a century ago, for during the 



particular work; but we are not doing this particular 

 work, and our failure to do so has entailed tremendous 

 loss, nut only upon Mexicans, but upon a great num- 

 ber of foreigners and upon a particularly large num- 

 ber of Americans. The jiolished and scholarly gentle- 

 man who is now President of the United States, and 

 the gifted orator with the musical voice who is his 

 Secretary of State, confer together much and fre- 

 quentlv — and then confer some luore — while matters go 

 from bad to worse. 



Americans probably have $20,000,000 invested in 

 rubber plantations in Mexico, and it is safe to say that 

 the (luayule interests before the Mexican outbreak 

 were worth $20,000,000 or $25,000,000 more— $50,000,- 

 000 would not be an excessive valuation of the Amer- 

 ican rubber holdings in Mexico. But as matters are 

 now, and as they have been for some time past, this 

 property is rendered, for the time being at least, quite 

 valueless. Undoubtedly when (or perhaps we might 

 properly say if) peace is restored in that country a 

 considerable part of the value of this property will be 

 recovered, but the aggregate loss both in the original 

 investment and in the long cessation of production will 

 be enormous. 



It really would be of vast advantage to the com- 

 mercial interests of this country — not tii mention those 

 of Europe — if the Monroe Doctrine could be con- 

 veyed out beyond the three mile limit and dropped 

 noiselessly into the sea. 



past century there has been a very considerable destruc- 

 tion of the natural rubber trees, particularly those of 

 the Castilloa family and of the rubber vines in Africa. 



The second statement, that some of the older manu- 

 facturers paid in early days only one-quarter or one-fifth 

 of the present prices for crude rubber, will probably be 

 received with some incredulity by many people in the 

 trade ; but this also is not very far from the mark. There 

 are some manufacturers still living — not many, it hardly 

 need be said, but a few — who can remeiuber when they 

 bought fine Para rubber at a shilling a pound ; and some 

 of the older manufacturing companies, if they have kept 

 their records intact, will be able, by referring back to 

 their early days, to find many instances of fine rubber 

 purchased at this price. To be sure the price did not re- 

 main long at this figure, because the early annals of the 

 American rubber trade contain a complaint made by the 

 New England manufacturers, some sixty years ago or 

 more, that they were often compelled to pay as high as 

 50 cents a pound for Para rubber — and they looked upon 

 it as pure extortion. 



On glancing back at the price of crude rubber in the 

 early days, the inquiry naturally suggests itself: How is 

 it that the people along the Amazon maintain that they 

 could not by any possibility deliver fine Para rubber at 

 American or European ports of entry under 65 cents a 

 pound, and that if the price should go below that they 

 would have to cease shipments, when it was possible for 

 them sixty years ago to deliver rubber for 35 cents and 

 even 25 cents ? Transportation facilities certainly are 

 vastly better now than then, while the primitive style of 

 living of the earlier days still obtains along the banks of 

 the Amazon. \\'hy has the cost of gathering rubber in- 

 creased so greatly? 



