348 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September i, 1901. 



sented by the claim. On the other hand, the allowance 

 of it would bind good customers still more firmly to the 

 company. The claim was therefore allowed, and the re- 

 sult was as he predicted, and not only that but the claim- 

 ants nearly doubled their purchases within a year. 



The point to be made here is, not that unjust claims 

 should invariably be allowed, but simply that all claims 

 should be considered, particularly when they are put for- 

 ward in all honesty, and that it is sometimes good business 

 to allow a conscientious customer to get the better end of 

 the bargain. 



AN IMPROVING SITUATION. 



T^HE late John H. Cheever used to remark, sometimes, 

 ■*■ that there was nothing under the sun by means of 

 which one could predict the price of crude rubber ; so far 

 as he could see, the sinking of'a steamboat on the Missouri 

 river was as likely to affect prices as anything else. Mr. 

 Cheever was a rubber manufacturer for years before an 

 ocean cable e.xisted, before there were any regular crude 

 rubber importing houses, and before the beginning of a 

 good many things that now have a bearing upon rubber 

 prices. In the early days of the industry crude rubber only 

 " happened " in the market. As late as 1865 Mr. Cheever 

 paid $1.05 for fine Para in March, 62 cents in July, and $1 

 in December. He paid these figures because that was the 

 " market " ; as for reasons for the fluctuations, none could 

 be had. 



It all seemed like a lottery. Nobody was ever met in 

 the early days who had seen rubber gathered ; even the 

 merchants in centers like Para had not seen rubber trees 

 growing. One did not know when to expect the arrival of 

 rubber from any source, or what it would cost when it ar- 

 rived. The rubber shoe manufacturers revised their prices 

 four times in one season, on account of fluctuations in 

 the cost of raw material. 



All the elements of uncertainty have not disappeared 

 yet, but their number is becoming smaller. For that mat- 

 ter, the price of wheat is not a fixed quantity, and it can- 

 not be predicted certainly very far in advance. But it 

 doesn't fluctuate violently enough to disturb the baker's 

 trade, or render the supply of bread uncertain in any home. 

 No doubt in the near future the rubber situation will be as 

 comprehensible as the wheat situation. It will be even 

 easier to size up existing supplies of rubber than supplies 

 of grain, and as for forecasts, the advantage will be on the 

 side of rubber. When the acreage of wheat is known, the 

 yield is uncertain until after harvest, so much depends 

 upon the weather. But if a given number of workers go 

 into the rubber country under certain conditions, it is 

 probable that about so much rubber will be gathered. 



There is not room here for an enumeration of the im- 

 proved means of transportation and communication that 

 now connect the rubber consuming with the rubber pro- 

 ducing countries, very many of which have come into 

 existence since the first issue of The India Ruhiser 

 World. But no longer does a cargo of rubber reach New 

 York without its arrival being known in advance, even if 



the rubber is not sold at a fixed price before the steamer 

 starts for this port. Altogether the situation has become 

 a more favorable one for the rubber manufacturer, and 

 further improvement in the same direction seems almost 

 certain. 



A RE.MARKAHLE THING about the rubber business is its elas- 

 ticity. This is not put forth in a humorous vein, nor with the 

 idea of punning. Perhaps the word " adaptability " would ex- 

 press the thought better. For example, the mackintosh busi- 

 ness prospered for awhile, a great deal of money was made, but 

 suddenly competition brought it down to so low an ebb that the 

 trade believed that, as a money making proposition the 

 manufacture of mackintoshes offered nothing. Suddenly the 

 windproof coat sprung in, which practically drove the leather 

 jacket out of existence, and mackintosh factories were so 

 crowded with orders that many of them ran day and night. 

 The marvelous adaptability of rubber for almost all purposes 

 was here illustrated, and in it lies the permanence and profita- 

 bleness of the business. 



The EXPORTS of rubber footwear from the United 

 States during the last fiscal year amounted to 1,469.100 pairs, 

 compared with 175,627 pairs in the fiscal year ended June 30, 

 1891 — ten years ago. The United States has now become the 

 largest exporter of this class of goods, except Russia, not as the 

 result of a sudden " boom," or on account of accidental or tem- 

 porary circumstances, but because, in spite of the efforts of 

 manufacturers elsewhere, the American production of attrac- 

 tive and serviceable rubber footwear to-day has the preference 

 where the goods have become known. Itshould be mentioned, 

 however, that the wider acquaintance of other countries with 

 American rubber shoes of late is a result of better methods in 

 conducting an export trade than at some times in the past. 



The subject of rubber culture is likely to receive an 

 important degree of elucidation in the pages of a new period- 

 ical, X.\\e Journal d' Agriculture Tropicale, of Paris, of which 

 Mons. J. Vilbouchevitch is the very capable editor. 



THE NEW RUBBER TRUST. 



THE Youngstown (Ohio) Vindicator says: "The various 

 conflicting interests are now said to be in a better frame 

 of mind, which, if true, presages a world-breaking deal for the 

 control of the rubber trade of the western hemisphere. A con- 

 solidated company would probably be capitalized for not less 

 than $125,000,000. The present Fhnt group has a live capital 

 of $75,000,000." 



The Cleveland (Ohio) World says: "Heretofore the com- 

 pany has purchased its crude rubber from other concerns. It 

 now proposes to organize the manufacturers of crude with the 

 dividend-paying concerns now in competition with the manu- 

 facturing company in one immense concern to control the 

 trade in the United States and beyond it. The consolidation 

 project is generally favored by local holders of the stock. One 

 of them said Saturday to the IVorld that the plan has reached 

 a stage where its operation is only a question of time and that 

 if any opposition existed it had not developed." 



The Baltimore (Maryland) Sun learns from citizens of that 

 town that the Amazon rubber country "has been controlled by 

 the Rubber Trust, which has headquarters at Bristol, R. I., but 

 we have now gotten in there and have about 2000 men ready 

 to go to work upon the property." 



