33 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1901. 



munication. the different states have little relation one to 

 the other. It is, however, only the rubber districts with 

 which we now have any concern. 



It is common report that the monetary system of Brazil 

 is sadly unstable ; that coffee growing has become less 

 profitable ; and that rubber " farms " are being offered for 

 a song. Moreover, bankers have been forced to limit credits 

 to the owners oi rubber properties, and merchants to make 

 smaller advances of goods. The fact that fewer laborers, 

 fewer steamers, and fewer supplies have gone up the Ama- 

 zon this year would seem, of necessity, to mean that some- 

 where less rubber must be produced. 



But our own United States have not always enjoyed unin- 

 terrupted prosperity. There have been years of short 

 crops, scarcity of money and the like, but followed always 

 by recovery and subsequent progress. The same thing is 

 possible in Brazil. Recent official reports from the federal 

 capital give a more favorable color to conditions with which 

 the government has to deal ; the population of the country 

 remains and presumably does not stop work because times 

 are " bad." And when improvement does come, the news 

 may not fly abroad as fast as the reports of depression have 

 done. 



What has this to do with rubber ? All that can be said 

 is that the production has not fallen off. Last year's crop 

 was the largest on record, in spite of the predicted short- 

 age. And now some of our correspondents are of the opin- 

 ion that, while there may be a shortage in the Upriver sup- 

 plies this season, it will be made good from the Islands 

 districts. This view does not appear to us to be without 

 reason. For years rubber workers have been flocking up 

 the Amazon in search of fresh and more productive trees, 

 while the long worked cstradas nearer Para have been 

 neglected or left to the less efficient or less enterprising 

 class of labor. As a result, the production of Islands rub- 

 ber perhaps has not been kept up to its capacity. 



If, however, conditions have proved unfavorable to work 

 in the remoter districts, it would only be natural for an 

 increased force of capable workers to find employment 

 nearer the bases of supplies of money and food, sending 

 to market more rubber than usual from the Islands dis- 

 trict. At any rate, no definite indication exists as yet that 

 the world will not have its usual supply of " Pari rubber " 

 this year, though of all things known to commerce this 

 is about the unsafest on which to risk one's reputation as a 

 prophet. 



ANOTHER RUBBER BELT IN AFRICA. 



" I "HE collection of India-rubber in the French Soudan, 

 ■*■ referred to elsewhere in this paper, points to the 

 probable existence in Africa of another rubber belt, equal 

 in importance to that of which the Congo river is now the 

 outlet. If this should prove true the effect will be to pro- 

 long the supplies of native rubber, though ultimately it is 

 to be feared that the new fields will become exhausted, as 

 others have been, for the reasons set forth in an illustrated 

 article in The India Rubber World last month. 



The matter for present interest, however, is the fact 



that some virgin rubber fields yet remain to be worked. 

 The French colony of Senegal is already a producer of rub- 

 ber, from the region near the seaboard. The French Sou- 

 dan is an area further inland, which has been brought 

 under the administration of this colony. Beyond this are 

 regions, claimed by various European powers, and not yet 

 brought under civilized control, and in which rubber of 

 value doubtless will be found to exist. Finally, to the 

 eastward, lies the British sphere of influence, including 

 Uganda, where rubber is known to abound, and where its 

 exploitation is only a matter of time. Thus is indicated a 

 belt across Africa, from ocean to ocean, north of the Congo 

 region, the forests of which, no less than those of the 

 Congo, are the home of rubber. 



True, much of this vast region lacks such a favorable 

 outlet as the Congo river affords. Yet nature has done 

 much in this direction, which man is attempting to sup- 

 plement. French Soudan rubber now comes down the Sen- 

 egal river ; as the search for rubber progresses further 

 eastward, the headwaters of the great Niger river will be 

 reached. The northern affluents of the Congo will become 

 available for parts of this new rubber belt, and the Ugan- 

 da railway, reaching to the East African coast, and the 

 river Nile will afford outlets for certain rubber. 



The late Emin Pasha sent samples of rubber from the 

 eastern Soudan, down the river Nile, to the factory of the 

 Messrs. Pirelli, at Milan, and he entertained a hope of de- 

 veloping an important trade based upon the rubber re- 

 sources of a region which is only now being brought under 

 other than native control. To recur to the favorable ad- 

 vantages for shipping Congo rubber, it is generally be- 

 lieved that the profits of trading in Belgian Africa have 

 been very great, and doubtless it will be possible to ex- 

 ploit rubber at a profit in regions where the cost of trans- 

 portation will be greater than by the Congo river and 

 railway. Especially will this be true after the cream of 

 the Congo rubber supply has become exhausted. 



STRIKES AND THE RUBBER INDUSTRY. 



A REPORT has appeared on the cost of the recent 

 strike in a rubber factory at Harburg, Germany, the 

 history of which movement has been detailed already in this 

 journal. But the cost as stated is only that portion which 

 fell upon the " social-democratic clubs," who, more than 

 the rubber workers, were responsible for the unsuccessful 

 demonstration made by the latter. If there should be 

 added the loss of wages, not only during the strike, but, in 

 some cases, permanent loss of position, the total would be 

 found to exceed greatly the item of about $25,000 which 

 the clubs had to make good. It is thought that another 

 strike in the German rubber industry will not be attempted 

 soon, in view of the failure of the one at Harburg, which, 

 by the way, was the first in that country for very many 

 years. 



Not only in Germany, but in Great Britain and in 

 America as well, the rubber industry has been singularly 

 free from strikes or other labor troubles. There has never 

 been, in fact, in any country, anything like a general shut- 



