196 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, 1901. 



RUBBER SHOE PRICES. 



/^NCE a year, about this time, the whole shoe trade 

 ^^ becomes anxious, if not upset, over the question of 

 prices of rubber footwear for the next twelve months. 

 Now if taxes lluctuated wildly from year to year, the aver- 

 age citizen might feel concern over the fixing of the rate ; 

 or if there were stated periods for settling the price of steel, 

 the large users of this material might go slow in making 

 contracts, with the approach of expected changes. But 

 why such ado should be made about the prices of rubbers 

 is not so clear. 



The customer doesn't make any move in the matter. 

 Mr. A. might object to paying 75 cents for a pair of rub- 

 bers if he knew that Mr. B. had bought the same quality 

 for 70 cents, particularly if it had been in the same store. 

 But if the dealer charged the same price to all cus- 

 tomers alike, the average citizen would pay that price 

 without complaint — if he needed the rubbers. If he didn't 

 need them, he would hardly buy at any price. After all 

 the talk about prices of rubbers, there really is no fixed 

 price. In New York the same article is retailed up and 

 down Broadway at all the way from 65 cents to $1 a pair, 

 according to the character of the first store one happens 

 to drop into after a snowstorm. 



The fact is that the manufacturer can fix prices only in 

 making the first turnover of his product. No sort of con- 

 tract will prevent a jobber from "cutting" whenever he 

 feels like it, and as for the retailer — if he can attract a 

 crowd to his store by giving away rubbers, with a prize 

 besides, no law can be enforced against him. Then why 

 should not the manufacturer stop at fixing a price on his 

 product that will yield a fair profit for himself, and leave 

 the rest to other heads to worry over? The makers of 

 leather shoes don't fix prices for retailers and for the 

 wearer. The man who wants a pair of leather shoes buys 

 what he thinks he wants and pays the price, regardless of 

 how many other different makes in the same store may be 

 higher or lower in cost. There is little more need for 

 rubbers to be uniform in price. As a matter of fact, every- 

 body knows that there are rubber shoe manufacturers who 

 habitually ask more — and receive more — for their goods 

 than the standard prices, and presumably jobbers and re- 

 tailers are able to sell them for more, or else the manu- 

 facturer would have to conform to the standard price to 

 the jobber. 



This issue of The India Rubber World must go to 

 press before the customary announcement to the trade of 

 footwear prices is due, and there can be no comment here, 

 therefore, on whatever action may be taken. For that 

 matter, we have no desire to comment on anybody's price 

 list, at ai!y time. But there is one view to which we have 

 held at all times — that it is not good business to make and 

 sell any product at a price that does not promise a profit. 

 And another point to be insisted upon is that no reduction 

 in rubbers will ever increase the consumption. Rubber 

 shoes are the last thing in the world that the average per- 

 son will buy and store away just because they are cheap. 

 He will rather run the risk of having to pay more than 



they are worth when the next snow comes. And if a man 

 should go about wearing rubbers in fine weather, only be- 

 cause they were bought at a bargain, his friends would 

 probably inquire into his sanity. 



In all other lines of rubber goods there are different 

 grades offered at different prices, to meet different wants, 

 and the customer who prefers high grade goods pays the 

 price, without regard to what else the market may afford. 

 It would seem that a good policy with regard to rubber 

 footwear, instead of sinking to a dead level of uniformity 

 in price — thus preventing any manufacturer from making 

 a better grade than his associates under the agreement — 

 would be for each to strike out for himself, make a good 

 quality of goods, and charge what they were worth. There 

 have been and are now in the trade examples of firms able 

 to control a good demand on the basis of merit rather than 

 of low prices. 



A reduction in prices as a general trade measure — with- 

 out some other clear reason being given — is an indication 

 of one of two things : either that profits have been too 

 big before, or that a trade war is on, the result of which 

 usually is disastrous to everybody engaged in it. As for 

 the consumer, even if benefited for the moment by the re- 

 duction, he must make good the losses sustained by the 

 warring manufacturers by paying unduly high prices in 

 the end. With an article so cheap as rubbers, and in such 

 great demand in normal weather, it would seem that in no 

 other branch of manufacture ought it to be easier to main- 

 tain prices at or above a profitable level. 



The name Manaos seems destined to become as tamiliar 

 in connection with rubber as that of the older city, Para. The 

 feeling of rivalry on the part of Manaos has grown with the 

 development of rubber gathering in the great upriver state of 

 which that city is the commercial and political capital, and the 

 hope is entertained that in time it may outstrip Para. Our 

 news columns lately have mentioned the new regulations in 

 the state of Amazonas — a district fifteen times as large as the 

 state of New York, and the largest rubber producing state in 

 the world — which require all rubber gathered in the state to be 

 handled in Manaos, with the idea of expanding the business of 

 that city. The growing importance of the place is indicated 

 by the fact that its population was declared, by the census of 

 December 31 last, to be 52,900. Only eight years ago it was 

 estimated at 20,000. On January 1,1852, when Amazonas, a 

 former district of Para, became a separate state, there was no 

 Manaos ; at least there was only the native village Barra, with 

 3848 inhabitants. The place was visited in that month by 

 Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon, U. S. Navy, in his explora- 

 tion of the valley of the Amazon made under the direction of 

 the government, and though he remained six weeks at Barra, 

 and afterwards made careful observations all the way down 

 stream, he failed to find any rubber gathering in the vast Ama- 

 zonas territory. The great growth of the place since then has 

 all been due to the discovery of rubber there, and the world's 

 increasing demand for this product, and doubtless the develop- 

 ment here referred to will be found repeated many fold before 

 another half century. Not the least important feature of the 

 coming development is likely to be the placing of the rubber 

 lands under private control and a more intelligent, systematic, 

 and economical supervision of rubber gathering, with the 

 result of rendering supplies more certain and regular, and 

 prices somewhat lower and less liable to fluctuation. 



