May 1, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLH 



227 



with the hardest problem since Goodyear's time, in the 

 matter of supplying a tire that will do its work and not 

 cost more for maintenance than a vehicle can earn in pas- 

 senger fares. The final type of automobiles must, how- 

 ever, be adapted to the limitations of rubber, instead of 

 the rubber being forced to meet any and all requirements 

 of the vehicle makers. 



The rubber industry in Canada is growing, as it is else- 

 where. Each year shows a material increase in the amount of 

 raw materials entered for home consumption, besides which 

 the imports of rubber goods are larger than in the period when 

 no rubber factories existed in that country. All of which 

 means that the consumption of such goods is extending in the 

 Dominion, and at a more rapid rate than the growth of popu- 

 lation. So far as this growth of consumption is concerned, it 

 is going on all over the world, including many countries which 

 do not, like Canada, attempt to supply the home demand by 

 home production, and this affords possibilities for wider 

 markets for American rubber goods which ought to keep our 

 factories busy, and prevent any cutting of prices in the Ameri. 

 can market below a level of profitable production. But not all 

 the enterprise and activity of the Canadian manufactories pre- 

 vents the sale of rubber goods from the United States in that 

 market. It is interesting to notice, in passing, that the system 

 of preferential duties now in force in the Dominion, meant to 

 stimulate closer trade relations with the mother country, has not 

 increased the proportion of British rubber goods exports to 

 Canada. During the last hscal year the United States supplied 

 about 75 per cent, of the total imports of rubber goods into 

 Canada, and if rubber clothing and waterproofed cloth be de- 

 ducted from the total, the share of the United States was more 

 than 87 per cent. 



The position of the bicycle trade, as we always felt 

 would be the case, is becoming much more favorable for the 

 tire producers, though this is now a matter of less interest to 

 the rubber industry in general, owing to most of the former 

 manufacturers of tires having given up the business. There 

 are now fewer makers of bicycles, there is no longer over, 

 production of wheels, the concerns in the field are on a sounder 

 financial basis, and in future good wheels will find a steady sale 

 at a lair price. The fact that conditions exactly the opposite 

 of these existed for so many years helped to make the tire 

 business exceedingly unsatisfactory to many of the rubber 

 companies who at one time or another engaged in it. It must 

 be admitted that the rubber people made some mistakes on 

 their own account, which experience has taught the survivors 

 in the trade to avoid. But the bicycle tire business is by no 

 means at an end. The bicycle trade having taken a new lease 

 of life on sounder lines, it is reasonable to expect henceforth 

 that a gradual and healthy increase in production will be seen . 

 that cyclists will demand good wheels and good tires, for which 

 they will be willing to pay the right prices ; and that money 

 can be made by everybody in the trade who adopts the same 

 business principles that are necessary to success in other lines. 

 There is no reason to suppose that the demand for rubber tires 

 will ever grow less. 



While another congress has adjourned at Washington 

 without furthering the construction of an American trans- 

 Pacific cable, an award has been made for the construction of 

 a cable between British Columbia and Australia, to be con- 

 trolled by Great Britain and her colonies, and the work of 



manufacture has been begun. This fact need not discourage 

 the advocates of an American cable across the Pacific, although 

 the idea prevailed at the Ottawa conference of 1894. that the 

 country which first spanned the great ocean would have a 

 strong and lasting advantage there, if not a permanent cable 

 monopoly. Rut at that date the United States did not possess 

 the Hawaiian Islands or an interest in the Philippines, and 

 our trade prospects beyond the Pacific were less inviting than 

 now. This country will hardly postpone very long forming 

 cable connections with its own new possessions, and this alone 

 will necessitate a virtual spanning of the Pacific. The fact 

 that it is not absolutely necessary for an American cable to be 

 laid in order to give us connection with the Far East will hardly 

 have more weight with the United States than like considera- 

 tions have had with the French and German nations in regard 

 to the laying of cables owned by their own people across the 

 Atlantic. As for the delay in starting a Pacific cable, it may 

 be said that such an enterprise has not been discussed here 

 nearly so long as it was discussed in Great Britain before the 

 contract for their cable was awarded. Besides, the political 

 and military argument for an American cable has only of late 

 come into existence. There will be work yet for American 

 cable building companies. 



Exports of rubber goods from the United States and 

 from Great Britain to the Argentine Republic during 1899 

 were as follows, according to an English authority : 



From the United States / 4,132 ( = .| 20,660) 



From Great Britain ... 23,481 (= 117,405) 



As the English writer says : " The Argentine is inhabited by 

 people chiefly of Spanish and Italian descent, who are no more 

 inclined to favor English than German or United States manu- 

 facturers, while the tariff is the same for all." Ic is worth 

 while for American rubber manufacturers, therefore, to con- 

 sider why such a preponderance in the trade above referred to 

 goes to their competitors beyond the Atlantic? 



The crude rubber situation is ever a topic of engrossing 

 interest to the manufacturer, since upon the supply, quality, 

 and cost of the raw material is based the whole industry, to 

 say nothing of the subsequent sale and consumption of the 

 goods produced. We are writing this paragraph to call atten- 

 tion to a change which is being made in the arrangement of 

 the contents of The India Rubber World, by which the de- 

 partment headed "Review of the Crude Rubber Market" is 

 gradually being made to embrace articles and items which 

 formerly were scattered throughout the paper. It is hoped 

 that this department will, with the progress of time, become 

 increasingly interesting and valuable to all readers who are 

 concerned in any way with the state of the rubber market. 



The increasing production of Balata for several years 

 past, together with the absence of a material decline in prices, 

 is evidence of an increasing consumption of this gum. But, 

 with all the increase in the consumption of India-rubber in the 

 United States, it does not appear that any more Balata is used 

 here than formerly. It would appear that the chief consump- 

 tion is in Germany, in wllich country the importation grows 

 yearly. If Balata has merit in one country, it ought to have in 

 others, which suggests that perhaps there is an opportunity in 

 the United States for some enterprising manufacturer to adopt 

 the methods of treating Ralata which have proved successful in 

 Europe, and thereby make a profit from putting on the market 

 a line of goods involving the use of this gum. 



