338 



THE INDiA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1901. 



The Late John Havhn Chf.ever. 



[continued from page 318.) 



he came to invest in outside ventures, such as mines and a va- 

 riety of schemes into which his friends led him, he was far from 

 successful, losing large sums of money. Through all his losses 

 he was most philosophic, and to the last no one heard him com- 

 plain of ill treatment by friends or fortune. It is not too much 

 to say that the name of John H. Cheever was, and is now, known 

 in the rubber trade circles the world over as a synonym for 

 absolute commercial integrity. 



Henry Fowle Durant, named above, born 1822 at Lowell, 

 Mass., was graduated at Harvard n 1841. The latter part of his 

 life was devoted largely to philanthropic work. He founded 

 Wellesley College, which was opened in 1875, giving $1,000,000 

 for the building and its equipment, and providing an endow- 

 ment income of $50,000 a year, besides making other donations 

 to the institution. He died in Boston, October 2, 1881. To the 

 end of his life the warmest friendship existed between Mr. 

 Durant and Mr. Cheever, and Mrs. Cheever was among those 

 present at the funeral of the latter. 



HEARD AND SEEN IN THE TRADE. 



THE United States department of agriculture is reported to 

 have begun actively the investigation of the sources of 

 rubber and the possibility of producing on American territory 

 an important part of the material used in our factories. The 

 first expedition is likely to be sent to Mexico, and part of the 

 results of its work may be a report on the methods of the Ameri- 

 can companies now raising capital for planting rubber in that 

 country. It is not too much to say that the department does 

 not regard favorably the methods of some of these companies, 

 and would not hesitate, if supported by proof, to warn the pub- 

 lic against them. Having determined the proper conditions 

 (or cultivating the Castilha elastica, the next step will be to 

 learn whether the tree can be grown successfully in Cuba or 



Porto Rico, or our possessions in the Pacific. 



* * * 



Another expedition, which is likely to be on a larger scale, 

 will be in the natureof a botanical study of the Amazon region, 

 from the headwaters to the Atlantic ocean, noting any plants 

 of economic value which may possibly prove, after experi- 

 ments have been made, to be suited for cultivation in any 

 American possession. But it is expected that the most im- 

 portant result of this expedition will be a report on the Ama- 

 zon rubber species, which shall be more accurate and more ex- 

 haustive than anything which has yet been written. The au- 

 thorities at Washington are not content to assume that the 

 Hevea rubber species cannot be domesticated outside of the 



Amazon basin. 



* * * 



As for the Philippines, the investigation into the rubber sit- 

 uation which has been set on foot is within the province of the 

 war department, through which the administration at Manila 

 is still directed. It is known that many persons connected 

 with the government of the Philippines are alive to the possi- 

 bilities in the way of the existence of India-rubber and Gutta- 

 percha there, and the principle will be adhered to strictly of 

 protecting these and all other natural resources on the public 

 domain. 



* * * 



In the beginnings of the interest in rubber planting it was 

 perhaps natural that leading members of the rubber trade 

 should be asked to invest capital in the business, or to give 



advice on the subject to intending investors on the outside. 

 Almost without exception the rubber manufacturers showed a 

 lack of interest at the outset, if they did not openly express 

 their scepticism. As a matter of fact, a man's success as a rub- 

 ber manufacturer does not alone make him acquainted with 

 the conditions of rubber culture, nor is there anything in his 

 work which should naturally make him more ready to plant 

 rubber than to grow cocoanuts or gooseberries. But apart from 

 the nature of their business, a considerable number of rubber 

 manufacturers in the United States, looking at the matter 

 purely as offering a good investment, have subscribed for stock 

 in some of the planting companies formed lately. One formerly 

 prominent rubber manufacturer is reported to have made an 

 investment of this kind of $100,000. 



« * « 

 Speaking of the late John H. Cheever, a rubber man who 

 long has been engaged in the business said : " I can say of Mr. 

 Cheever what cannot be said of every man in business, that, 

 though I have traveled throughout the United States, and have 

 come in contact with all kinds of people in the trade, and in the 

 days when M r. Cheever was an active man of affairs, I have never 

 heard an unfavorable comment upon him as a business man. I 

 have never heard a word against his integrity or straightfor- 

 wardness ; never a complaint that his business methods had not 

 been in the highest degree honorable." 



* » • 



An American, lately returned from Germany, mentions that 

 when he was at Harburg it seemed that the strike in the Har- 

 burg-Vienna rubber works at that place, mentioned in the last 

 India Rubber World, was practically at end. A consider- 

 able number of the employes refused from the outset to join 

 the strike, and these were inconvenienced, not only by the an- 

 noyance of the strikers, but in many cases by the refusal of the 

 local tradesmen to sell to them. For these reasons the rubber 

 company erected on their premises sleeping accommodations, 

 with dining room and kitchen, and thus prepared to protect 

 their loyal employes against all outside interference. 



* * * 



There is an important growth to be recorded in the con- 

 sumption of many lines of rubber goods which have been 

 introduced only within comparatively recent years. The new 

 new Federal building in course of erection in Chicago is ex- 

 pected to be one of the notable structures in that city, as regards 

 both cost and attractiveness in appearance. There is to be a 

 liberal provision of rubber tiling in furnishing the interior. 

 For instance, the four large United States court rooms on the 

 sixth floor, will be floored with such tiling, rendering walking 

 in them noiseless. It is reported that pneumatic horse collars 

 have met with such favor in Paris that one order for such goods, 

 calling for 25,000, has been sent to this side of the Atlantic. 

 Another item worth mentioning particularly is the extending 

 use of rubber conveying belts, for handling many different 

 commodities. 



Mr. Ohio C. Barber, president of the Diamond Match Co., 

 and a large stockholder in the Diamond Rubber Co. (Akron, 

 Ohio), has been in England lately, with the result that the Dia- 

 mond Match Co. of Liverpool and the long established match 

 manufacturing firni of Bryant iS; May, of London, have agreed 

 to an amalgamation. The Liverpool business is put in at;£48o,- 

 000 (=$2,400,000). 



At the present low prices, says a writer in The Shoe Re- 

 tailer, it is likely that dealers will be disposed to sell a greater 

 quantity of first quality rubber footwear than formerly. 



