February i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



131 



CONDITION OF THE RUBBER TRADE. 



PnWshed on tlie 1st of each Uonth by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YOEK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 



EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 



ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 25. 



FEBRUARY 1. 1902. 



No. 5. 



Subscriptions ; 83.00 per year, $1.75 for six months, postpaid, for the United 

 States and Canada. Foreign couirtrles, same price. Special Hates for 

 Clubs of five, ten or more subscribers. 



Advertising: Kales will be made linown on application. 



Remittances: Should always be made by bank draft. Post ORlceOrder« or 

 Express Money orders on New York, payable IoThb India Rubber 

 Publishing Company. Kemittances 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 

 bediscontinui-d only at the request of the subscriber or advertiser. 

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

 thereby our patrons have due notice of continuance. 



COPYRIGHT. 1002, BY 



THE I.XDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



Entered at New Vork Post Office as mall matter of the second-class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



£ditorial : 



Condition of the Rubber Trade 131 



Wireless Telegraphy and Insulat'i.n 132 



The Government and Rubber 132 



Minor Kdltorlals 133 



The Submarine Cable Interest in America 135 



fAmerican Cable Making Facilities. The Americari Pacific Cable. 

 Progress in American Cable Making.] 



An American Report on Gutta-Percha 137 



The India-Eubber Trade in Great Britain . . 



"«/■ Regular Correspondent . 139 



[Telegraph Notes. Stale of the Trade, Rubber Litigation. Fire 



Hose Tests. Recent Rubber Literature. Recovered Rubber. Trade 



Jottings.] 



Conditions of Rubber Trading in Bolivia 141 



The Rubber Planting Interest 142 



[Private Rubber Planting in Mexico. Notes of New Companies. Costa 

 Rican Rubber Trees for the Congo.] 



The Canadian Rubber Shoe Associations 143 



[With Picture of Banquet of Rubber Shoe Jobbers.] 



The Recent Failures in the Rubber Trade 145 



[George Watkinson & Co. Crude Rubber Co.] 



Sketch of Charles R. Flint 147 



[With Portrait.] 



A Monster Belt in a Rubber Factory {lihinlrataJ) 148 



Recent Rubber Patents (American and English] 149 



New Goods and Specialties in Rubber {llluslrated) 151 



[Bailey's Rubber Massage Roller. Williams's Adjustable Hot Water 

 Buttle. The " Crescent " Horseshoe Pad. The Game of "Ping 

 Pong." The Xander Tank Filter. The Black " V " Heel.] 



Exports of American Rubber Goods 152 



New Trade Publications 152 



News of the American Rubber Trade 153 



American Consumption of Rubber for 1901 168 



Heard and Seen in the Trade 169 



Rubber Notes from Europe 160 



M iscellaneons : 



Are Hose (luarantees an Evil? 134 



Americans in the Acre District .'.' ',','.'. ....' 134 



Farewell DInnfrlo Mr. H C.Corson '. )34 



Telegi^hs In the Philippines 138 



Some Wants ot the Kublirr Trade .'.'.'. 144 



A Manufacturer on Orading Balata ! 144 



Report on the Amazon Rubber Cable 146 



American Kiibbf'r Slices in England 118 



The Demand Large for Oilcloth. '.', 167 



Rubber Exports from Peru 158 



"Concurrent Rubber " 100 



A Card '. 161 



King Leopold Selling Rubber? 161 



Prices of Para Rubber for Three Years 161 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market 162 



/^F course no well informed person will regard ceitain 

 ^-"^ recent business failures as indicating an unfavor- 

 able condition of the rubber trade as a whole. Such an 

 idea could prevail only among those outsiders who have 

 been led, by the amazing misinformation in some widely 

 circulated newspapers, to suppose the rubber industry, 

 and to a large extent the crude rubber business, to be 

 practically under a single control. The real leaders in the 

 trade have been too busy making rubber goods and selling 

 them at a profit, to be concerned about such so called rub- 

 ber news as has appeared in the daily press for some years 

 past, and the failures referred to above have affected them 

 little if any more. 



For the last two or three years the rubber trade in the 

 United States — always profitable when general business 

 conditions are not totally bad — has appeared to be in par- 

 ticularly good shape. There has been a steady increase 

 in the production of goods, which have been sold — with 

 the exception of the shoe branch — at stable and satisfac- 

 tory prices. Never before have there been so few idle 

 rubber factories ; at no period has the number of new fac- 

 tories been greater, or the extension of capital and plant 

 of old companies more general. Rubber is in use to day 

 for every important purpose for which it has ever been 

 used, and the demand for every line of rubber goods is 

 greater than at any time in the past. The buying capacity 

 of the people was never so great, and the tendency is to 

 buy better instead of poorer grades. 



If there is an exception to the generally profitable con- 

 dition of the rubber trade, it is in the boot and shoe line 

 — and this is owing, not ^to a lack of demand for 

 goods, not to the unwillingness of any wearer of 

 " rubbers " to pay a fair price for them, but to a war in 

 prices, entered into by the manufacturers, with an eye to 

 future supremacy in the field rather than to present divi- 

 dends. Of late, however, there has been an advance in 

 factory prices for rubber footwear, besides which the ex- 

 ceptionally low prices of last year proved not to be so low 

 as they seemed, on account of the decline which has oc- 

 curred in the cost of crude rubber. 



While the recent failures are ,to be regretted, they no 

 more involve the whole rubber trade than the failure last 

 summer of one bank, among'nearly^a hundred in New York 

 city, involved the whole local financial situation. Every 

 man who buys crude rubber to sell again is liable some day 

 to find himself wishing that his foresight had been as good 

 as his hindsight turned out to be. And any crude rubber 

 merchant who is congratulating himself to-day upon not 

 having entered upon such transactions as were the fore- 

 runner of one of the late failures, should at least not boast 

 of superior judgment ; it may be just as easy again as in 

 the past to buy rubber for more than it can be sold for. But 

 a decline in crude rubber doesn't injure consumers ; nor, 

 on the other hand, did the last decline result from a falling 

 consumption, but from increasing supplies. As for the 

 single manufacturing failure connected with the embarrass- 

 ment of the crude rubber house, the relations of the two 



