December i, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER W^ORLD 



77 



of a single factory who find a ready market for their product, 

 and are in a brilliant financial condition. It is urgently solic- 

 ited to let the present tariff prevail. 



"The Deutsche Gummiwaren-Fabrik, Aktien-Gesellschaft, 

 vormals Volpi iS; Schliiter, who lormerly manulactured mechan- 

 ical goods only, and have recently, among other articles, taken 

 up the making of rubber shoes, are the only rubber factory 

 failing to declare a dividend in the later years. Specific rea- 

 sons are the cause of this retrogression. The falling off of the 

 dividends, especially during the years of 1898 and 1899. leads 

 back directly to the then rapidly advancing prices of crude 

 rubber. These same conditions have made themselves mani- 

 fest in foreign rubber factories." 



REPLY OF THE HARBURG-WIEN COMPANY. 

 Petition to the Central Society of German Rubber Goods 



Factories, Berlin : 



In regard to the report of the Hamburg Board of Trade, we 

 take the liberty of calling attention to the following points ; 



It is claimed that the Harburg shoe is inferior to that of for- 

 eign manufacture, but by the testimony of our customers, who 

 handle Harburg as weil as St. Petersburg shoes, we can prove 

 that the Harburg shoe, when of equal price with the St. Peters- 

 burg shoe, wears at least as well as that. 



Further, the comparison of weights and prices, as given in 

 the report, is equally incorrect. Eighteen pairs of Harburg 

 shoes weigh 9.300 kilograms and cost 62.10 maiks ; 18 pairs of 

 St. Petersburg shoes, identical in shape and size, weigh 9.725 

 kilograms and cost 67.40 marks. This proves that the prices 

 and weights are nearly alike. 



100 kilos Harburg shoes represent a value of 668 marks. 



loo kilos St. Petersburg shoes a value of 693 marks. 



When it is further pointed out that the prices are the selling 

 prices, in which, for the foreign product, freight and duty are 

 included, our answer to that is that the St. Petersburg shoes 

 are sold direct to the retailer, with a discount of 33IJ percent., 

 while our shoes go to several jobbers, and from them to the 

 wholesaler, who sells to the retailer at an average discount of 

 35 per cent. By our modus, therefore, the whole middle trade 

 participate in a fair profit, while the representative of the St. 

 Petersburg factory reaches the retailer direct. The profit 

 which we might derive, to offset the duty, freight, etc., on the 

 St. Petersburg goods, goes to the German middle trade. 



When in the report of the Hamburg Board of Trade, refer- 

 ence is made to our profits, we will state that they are derived 

 from the great variety of our manufacture ; we make numer- 

 ous specialties, which yield a fair profit, in comparison to which 

 the rubber shoe business, on account of the flooding of the 

 market by Russian and American competitors, is simply a los- 

 ing venture. 



In regard to Roumania, we will state that our Harburg fac- 

 tory does not sell a single shoe there; our establishment in 

 Austria attends wholly to that trade, so that statement on 

 this part of the board of trade bears scarcely any relation to 

 the German tariff. As a matter of information only, we may 

 remark : In former years our Austrian factory did an extensive 

 business in Roumania, but when the financial condition of our 

 customers there became so as to give much cause for appre- 

 hension, we withdrew our trade, and thus enabled the represent- 

 ative of the St. Petersburg factory to gain a firm footing. When 

 the financial conditions again became healthful, we sought our 

 former market, and certain arrangements were entered into, 

 by one of which we reserved the right of selling lower than the 

 St. Petersburg factory. This price agreement was of equal ad- 

 vantage to both ; on account of the risky financial conditions 

 it was necessary to obtain higher prices to insure against loss. 



Regarding the firm of Volpi & Schliiter, of whom it is said 

 that they have profited by their agreement with the St. Peters- 

 burg factory, we have before us a letter from that firm, to the 

 effect that the statement in the report of the Hamburg board 

 of trade in no wise relates to them, and the best proof that 

 they are not •' spinning silk " in the rubber shoe business can 

 be found in their financial status, no dividends having been de- 

 clared by them since i8g6. 



We can only repeat that the rubber shoe business is not 

 profitable, and, unless we are supported by the government, by 

 laying a higher import duty on rubber shoes, it only remains 

 for us to curtail that branch of our factory or close it up en- 

 tirely, thereby depriving hundreds of workmen of their liveli- 

 hood. 



We believe that it is only right and fair to prevent Russia 

 and the United States of America from bringing rubber shoes 

 into Germany at a tariff of only 12 per cent, ad valorem, while 

 we can export rubber shoes to those countries only at a duty 

 of from 35 to 40 per cent, advalorem. 



It certainly is the intent of our government to retain to itself 

 an industry strong in capital and profitable to its employes, and 

 we hope that our desire for a higher tariff will be considered, 

 and therefore beg that the respected Central Society of Ger- 

 man Rubber Goods Factories use its influence in this regard in 

 the proper quarters. Respectfully, 



VEREINIGTE GUMMIWAREN-FABRIKEN HARBURG-WIEN. 



A RUBBER FARM FOR SALE. 



VARIETY is added to the pages of The India Rubber 

 World this month by the admission of an advertise- 

 ment of some productive rubber estates in the Amazon valley, 

 that are offered for sale. Attention is called to the fact, as it 

 illustrates the growing scope of the India-rubber interest. Not 

 only are manufactures of India-rubber and the raw material 

 itself bought and sold nowadays, but lands for forming planta- 

 tions, and seeds and plants for the same, and now comes the 

 entering wedge of a new condition in the crude rubber busi- 

 ness, when the lands, recently wild, on which rubber grows 

 native, are coming under private ownership and control. No 

 doubt within ten years from now rubber lands in the United 

 States of Brazil will be bought and sold as an ordinary busi- 

 ness transaction, just as farming lands are bought and sold in 

 our own United States. 



AN ITEM OF NEWS FROM JAPAN. 



KENZO OKADA writes to The India Rubber World 

 from Tokyo, Japan, that his uncle, J. Fujikura, at the 

 head of the Fujikura Insulated Wire Works, of that city, died 

 on October 8, after an illness of several weeks. The business 

 will be continued under the name Of Fujikura Insulated Wire 

 and Rubber Co., by Mr. Okada and other relatives of Mr. Fuji- 

 kura, in connection with a new waterproofing plant which was 

 already being planned. The late Mr. Fujikura was also one of the 

 directors in the Oriental Rubber Manufacturing Co., of Tokyo. 

 Mr. Okada, by the way, will be remembered with interest and 

 pleasure in more than one American rubber factory in which 

 he worked while preparing himself to take an active part in 

 developing the rubber industry of his native country. 



In New York on November 13. the sheriff sold out 1 5 tons of 

 old rubber shoes in storage at No. 32 Moore street for $2200, 

 under an attachment and execution against Herman Meyer, of 

 Europe, for $3096, in favor of the United States Rubber Co. 



