102 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1902. 



tries," but as yet no patent has been obtained in Germany (or 

 it. This is of great import because, generally, the granting of 

 a German patent is regarded as a test for the newness and 

 practicability of an invention. Close researches reveal the 

 fact that within the past five years no patent has been granted 

 Joseph O. Stokes (or the manufacture o( rubber shoes in Ger- 

 many. We will await further developments in this matter, 

 which is important enough to have special attention given it. 



THE AMERICAN PACIFIC CABLE. 



THE RUBBER SHOE TRADE IN GERMANY. 



[from the " GUMMI-ZEITUNG," DRESDEN.] 



WITH the advent o( the rainy cold season, the busy time 

 in the rubber shoe branch begins, and, though but (ew 

 rainy days have been recorded during this (all, a brisk demand 

 (or rubber (ootwear has already set in in the large cities. Tue 

 prospects are very favorable for this season. The long con- 

 tinued cold weather and the heavy snows of last winter, not 

 only caused a general cleaning out of stocks of the retailers, 

 but caused the shoes to be worn out in consequence of their 

 long continued use, so that new ones will have to be bought. 



The use of rubber shoes is growing continually, as the public 

 by degrees becomes more and more convinced o( the benefits 

 derived from wearing them during cold and wet weather. It 

 is to be regretted that this increasing consumption of rubber 

 footwear does not redound solely to the benefit of our home 

 industry, which is fully competent to supply the demand. It 

 is to be hoped that this increasing consumption will not re- 

 ceive a check from the introduction of inferior qualities. The 

 public seems inclined to favor the thin, light shoes (which are 

 praised as the best by the foreigners), without taking into con- 

 sideration that with our generally coarse footwear and hard 

 paved streets, goods of that style cannot possess much lasting 

 quality. Lightness and thinness are obtained at the expense 

 of durability, and, as the great majority of consumers prefer a 

 durable rather than a stylish or ultra (ashionable shoe, it is 

 timely to call the attention o( buyers to this fact. 



Experience has conclusively demonstrated that in countries 

 lying more northerly, where severe winters are of long dura- 

 tion, a strongly made shoe with heavy sole is the only one 

 practicable, and capable of withstanding the climatic condi- 

 tions. Of course it is possible to combine fit and appearance 

 with wearing qualities, but this, as before mentioned, must not 

 be done at the expense of the latter. Attention may here be 

 called to the habit of the dealers to sell, generally, shoes which 

 are too narrow, hastening their premature ruin. A rubber shoe 

 should neither bulge nor stretch, but be of such dimensions 

 that it can be easily drawn on or removed. Tight overshoes 

 will soon show a split of the outer rubber at the edges of the 

 soles, or a rubbing through of the inner insertions. But with 

 all this the rubber shoe should not be so loose as to flop at the 

 heels ; it should be a good and easy fit. 



Speaking in general, the trade in rubber shoes in middle 

 Europe has not nearly reached its possibilities, the general 

 public regarding it more as a luxury than an indispensable ne- 

 cessity for wear through all seasons of the year ; their hygienic 

 value being too little known to be fully appreciated. This mat- 

 ter should be attended to by all dealers and manufacturers, so 

 as to convince the public that it is an absolute necessity, during 

 cold and wet weather, for the rubber shoe to be on every foot ; 

 and by this means the sales may be doubled. It is so in other 

 countries, and should be so in ours. The attention of the pub- 

 lic should be continually called to the comforts and advantages 

 derived from the wear of rubber shoes, through newspaper ar- 

 ticles, advertisements, in the show windows, catalogues, etc. 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, in his first message to the 

 United States congress, makes the following recommen- 

 dation : 



" I call your attention most earnestly to the crying need of 

 a cable to Hawaii and the Philippines, to be continued from 

 the Philippines to points in Asia. We should not defer a day 

 longer than necesssary the construction of such a cable. It is 

 demanded not merely for commercial but for political and mil- 

 itary considerations. Either the congress should immediately 

 provide for the construction of a government cable, or else an 

 arrangement should be made by which like advantages to those 

 accruing from a government cable may be secured to the gov- 

 ernment by contract with a private cable company." 



* * * 



J. W. Marsh, of the Standard Underground Cable Co. (Pitts- 

 burgh) writes to the Electrical World, apropos of the state- 

 ment that the Commercial Pacific Cable Co. had awarded a 

 contract for the California-Hawaii cable to the Silvertown 

 company because no American works was prepared to con- 

 struct it. that only one reason has prevented an American 

 deep sea cable industry from coming into existence. He says : 



" Just as soon as congress cures the serious and apparent de- 

 fect of the existing tariff laws, by an amendment imposing on 

 foreign made submarine cables, such a duty as shall equal the 

 ' theoretical ' protection of the Dingley bill [applicable only to 

 one marine league from shore], applied to the entire length of 

 a cable, the manufacture of deep sea cables will become an 

 American industry of no mean magnitude." 



* * * 



In view of the announcement of Signor Guglielmo Marconi 

 that, on December 14, he received at St. John's, Newfound- 

 land, wireless telegraphic signals from Cornwall, England — a 

 distance of nearly 2000 miles across the Atlantic — the New 

 York Herald procured an interview with George G. Ward, 

 vice president o( the Commercial Pacific Cable Co.. as to the 

 probable effect upon ocean cabling of the success of Marconi's 

 experiment. Mr. Ward said : 



" I would not, for a moment, deprecate anything that Mar- 

 coni has done, but I see no cause as yet for cable men to be- 

 come alarmed. Ocean cabling is a delicate operation, even 

 with the best of conductors, and Marconi proposes to turn his 

 currents loose in the air without a conductor. Nearly nine- 

 tenths of our business is in cipher, and accuracy is of the 

 greatest importance. An error of one letter may give a con- 

 trary meaning to an entire message." 



"Will Marconi's experiments have any effect upon the lay- 

 ing of the cable to the Philippines?" was asked. 



"Not the slightest," replied Mr. Ward, "We have already 

 contracted for the work and 100 miles of the cable have been 

 completed by the manufacturers. Marconi, if he has talked 

 between Newfoundland and Ireland, has covered about 1600 

 miles. Our cable to the Philippines will be 7000 miles long. 

 Even if Marconi could send messages 1600 or 1800 miles, it 

 would not do us any good in reaching the Philippines, as we 

 have no way stations within that distance." 



* * * 



John W. Mackay, president of the Commercial Pacific 

 Cable Co., said recently to a newspaper man at Los Angeles, that 

 San Francisco has been chosen for the Pacific cable terminal. -= 

 The Seattle (Washington) chamber of commerce has adopted a 

 memorial to congress favoring an American cable from Puget 

 Sound to Alaska, the Philippines, and Asia— or by what is 

 known as the " northern route." 



