December i, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



63 



ON FIXING CRUDE RUBBER PRICES. 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 

 EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 



ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 25. 



DECEMBER 1. 1901. 



No. 3. 



Subscriptions: $3.00 per year, $1.76 for six months, postpaid, fortlie United 

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Advertising: Rates will be made known on application. 



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 Publishing COMPANV. Remittances for foreign subscriptions should 

 be sent by International Post order, payable as above. 



Discontinuances : Yearly orders for subscriptions and advertising are 

 regarded as permanent, and after the first twelve months they will 

 be discontinued only at the request of the subscriber or advertiser. 

 Bills are rendered promptly at the beginning of each period, and 

 tliereby oin* patrons have due notice of continuance. 



COPYRIGHT. 1901, BY THE 



INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



Entered at New York Post Office as mail matter of the second-class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGK. 



Editorial : 



On Fixing Crude Rubber Pricps 63 



Why the ■■ Llltif Fellow " F ourishes 64 



The Rtvoiuiion In Rubber Shoe Making 64 



FederalControl for Trusts 64 



A Typical Instance 64 



Compounding Keligion with Rubber 64 



Minor Editorial 6S 



A Pictorial Representation of Business Growth.. 66 



[With Viewb of Tyer Rubber Co.'s Factories.] 



Testsof Strength and Efficiency of Fire Hose 67 



The India-Subber Trade in Great Britain 



Our Regular Correspondent. 69 



[Rubber Workers' Union. The Sub-Manager. Glover & Co.. Limited. 

 Condilion of Trade. Frankenburg. Liroitcd. Tire Guarantee. 

 Pegamoid. Frog Pads. Rubber Tubing. Personal Mention.] 



Our Record of Rubber Planting 71 



["Parfi Rubber " in ihe Straus Settlements. Kamerun (German West 

 Africa.) Mexican Mutual Planters' Co. (Chicago ) Tehtiantepec 

 Rubber Culture Co. Ubero Plantation Co. India-Rubber in Cuba. 

 Planting in I urma.] 



The American Pacific Cable 73 



Adulteration of Fine Para Rubber 74 



The New England Rubber Club's Tropical Symposium 75 



Rubber Shoes and the German Tariff 76 



Death of James W. Godfrey I irOi ;'or(ri in 78 



New Goods and Specialties in Rubber ( Illustrated) 79 



[The ■■ Master Key " Tiling. Stroud Cushion Pad Slice. RubbcrTire 

 for Rocking Chairs. u'Sulhvan's Rubber Cement. " Holdfast " 

 Unlcsable Stopper Combination Syrinee and Water Rotije. * Pen- 

 tucel Special " Fountain Syringe. Venn's Patent Shoe Maiker. 

 Pad CMcaner and Ink Distributor.] 



Recent Rubber Patents [American and English] 81 



Mr. J. 0. Stokes and Others Interviewed 90 



Miscellaneous : 



Mangaba or Mangabelra Rubber Eugene Aekermann 6S 



Some Wants of the Rubhber Trade 7ii 



Imports ot Rubber Scrap .. 74 



The Office of " Latex " 74 



A Kubl)er Farm for Sale 77 



An 11 em of News from Japan 77 



■The German Oxylln Works t* 



Rubber Industry In the Census 78 



Exports of American Rubber Goods 84 



New Trade E'libllcatlons . 84 



"Crude Rubber Contracts" A. Braher DO 



The Rubber Vine of Hondtirni iti-*'^ 



News of the American Rubber Trade 88 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market 91 



T^ HE American houses engaged in thecrude rubber trade 

 •*• do not, as is the practice of several European firms, 

 publish periodical comments on the conditions of the mar- 

 ket. If they did, it is possible that the tendency of prices at 

 times might be attributed to the action of importers or 

 merchants on the other side of the Atlantic, just as the re- 

 ports issued there so often attempt to fix the responsibility 

 for fluctuations upon firms in New York. There is prob- 

 ably no other commercial problem so perplexing as that of 

 determining the elements which actually fix the prices of 

 crude rubber. Hence it is not strange if, in any rubber 

 trading center, it should be assumed that the controlling 

 influence exists in some other place ; to find that other 

 place is a perpetual puzzle. 



The remoteness from commercial centers and the lack 

 of civilized conditions in the regions whence crude rubber 

 is obtained, the risks of life and of capital in procuring 

 this material, the difficulties in the way of controlling the 

 business in its primary stages — all these considerations 

 render impossible such definite forecasts of the rubber 

 "crop " as may be made of the yearly yield, for instance, 

 of wheat or cotton, or the production of any staple of man- 

 facture. When it is considered, further, that the yearly 

 consumption of rubber is variable, it will be seen that, in 

 a way, the crude rubber business is a distinctively specu- 

 lative one. That is to say, the crude rubber merchant 

 cannot figure certainly, very long in advance, what his 

 purchases may be expected to cost him, because he can 

 predict the extent of neither the supply nor the demand 

 for rubber. Naturally, therefore, a higher rate of profit 

 must be figured on, in every stage in the progress of rub- 

 ber from the forest, than in lines of business that have be- 

 come more systematized. A handsome gain on one trans- 

 action is liable at any time to be offset by a loss on the 

 next. 



Within a year there have not been lacking charges in 

 European rubber trade circulars that New York houses 

 have sold rubber at lower prices than the conditions of 

 the trade warranted — with a suggestion of some ulterior 

 motive. So long as contracts for the sale of rubber must 

 be made often in advance of the arrival of the rubber in 

 stock, there must be differences of opinion as to what 

 prices should be named, and if an importer or merchant 

 should make a wrong forecast, we fail to see wherein his 

 act is reprehensible. We have known manufacturers to 

 make just as marked mistakes in paying too much for rub- 

 ber for future delivery, but nobody has seen fit to charge 

 them with improper conduct. But so far as the charge of 

 " bearing " prices by New York merchants is concerned, 

 it may be pointed out that the downward tendency of rub- 

 ber for the past twelvemonths has vindicated them. 



As for manipulating the market, we venture to say that 

 there is not a house in New York, Liverpool, or Par.i that 

 could, either alone, or with all the connections that it 

 possesses, very long maintain a higher level of prices 

 for rubber than the conditions of supply and demand war- 

 rant. Even if all the larger houses on either side of the 



