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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1910. 



Congress will not convene until the end of 1911. Be- 

 sides, President Taft retains office for two years and a 

 half yet, with the assurance of the support of a cabi- 

 net in political harmony witli himself, and the Senate 

 will continue to be Republican for even a longer pe- 

 riod. The first result of the recent election, therefore, 

 will be that, until another national election is held, the 

 only branch of the government in which the Opposi- 

 tion will hold the balance of power is one of the two 

 branches of Congress, and this condition will operate 

 meanwhile against a radical change in legislation or 

 administration. 



While politics, in the general sense, is outside the 

 province of The Im)i.\ Ri:j!i?kk Woklh, it seems proper 

 for a business paper to ])oiiit out tliat neither American 

 nor foreign business circles need cfincern themselves 

 for the |)resent with any idea of possible changes in 

 the tariff situation in tliis country. l!iu w ithonl doubt 

 the non-partisan tariff commission already provided 

 for by law, to be appointed by the President, will pro- 

 duce a report of wides])read interest, containing facts 

 and suggestions which will be considered in any fu- 

 ture revision of the tariff, no matter b}' what political 

 party. 



AMERICAN EXPORTS OF RUBBER GOODS. 



On the contrary, there have been increased exports to 

 practically every field in which rubber goods have been 

 sold in the past — with the single exception of Japan, 

 which affords the only decrease worth noting, and this 

 may be set down to the efforts which that progressive 

 country has been making for years past to supply its own 

 markets to the fullest possible extent. It may be men- 

 tioned that the United Kingdom last year took $2,798,578 

 worth of American rubber goods against $1,761,730 for 

 the preceding year; Canada. $1,565,904, against 

 $953,897; Germany, $713,707, against $534,.S05 ; and 

 so on. 



The exports of American rubber goods have been 

 fostered through the establishment of selling agencies 

 abroad by large aggregations of capital, as compared 

 with the former condition of small, disconnected, and 

 intermittent attempts upon foreign markets by individuals 

 unable to divert from their business at home more 

 than a small amount of capital at any one time, 

 and usually unable to wait long for returns from ex- 

 penditures made in a new field. The change which has 

 taken place in the methods of conducting the export trade 

 in American manufactures generally is illustratetl in the 

 case of rubber footwear, the exports of which have 

 grown very rapidly of late. The number of pairs of 

 rubber boots anrl shoes exported last year was larger by 

 23 per cent, than in any fnrmer year. 



THE exports of india-rubber goods from the United 

 States are beginning to reach a figure which cannot 

 fail to command attention wherever this class of products 

 figures in international trade. Until comparatively 

 recent years the value of rubber goods exports was a 

 negligible figure in the total of American foreign com- 

 merce. But all the while the consumption of raw rubber 

 in this country was increasing rapidly. During the last 

 fiscal year the imports of india-rubber alone were three 

 times as large as the total imjxirts of rubl>er and allied 

 gums twenty years before. Or, including jchUong, 

 scrap rublier and the like, the imports were six times as 

 large as in the fiscal year 1888-89. 



The fact that all this vast amount of raw material has 

 been absorbed by the home demand forms a striking 

 illustration of the growth of the I'nited States. The 

 large con.sumjjtion of rubber goods, for example, has 

 led to profiuction on a large scale, permitting of systemiz- 

 ation of the liighest order and the application of scientific 

 methods and processes, to the end that every possible 

 economy has been brought to bear upon this as well as 

 other forms of industrial production. 



In the summary of foreign trade of the United States 

 in rubber and rubber goods on another page it will be 

 seen that the export of rubber goods has increased in a 

 single year from $6,615,074 to $9,060,895, or an advance 

 of 34 per cent. .A.n analysis of the details points to the 

 belief that this rate of increase has not been due to any 

 sudden spurt in any particular field, or the opening of 

 new markets anywhere. 



THE RUBBER OUTPUT OF THE EAST. 



SEVEN thousand tons of rubber is a good deal, no 

 matter what the quality or its source, but the 

 figure here mentioned relates to the probable production 

 this year of the rubber plantations in Ceylon and the 

 Federated Malay States, as indicated by the figures 

 compiled from authentic sources in the statistical 

 pages of this issue of The Indi.\ Rubber World. It 

 is not surprising, in view of the rapid growth of the 

 Far Eastern rubber interest, that so high an authoritv 

 as Mr. Henry Kerr Rutherford should estimate the 

 1916 production in these regions as high as 54,000 

 tons, or that the able Ceylon Observer should not re- 

 gard his estimates as excessive. 



Without doubt not all the acreage planted to rubber 

 is destined to yield as liberally as certain estates which 

 have been reported on fully in the pages of this jour- 

 nal, but it would be futile to assume that the output 

 of rubber plantations is to be smaller before it be- 

 comes immensely larger. And this consideration is 

 bound to yield an immense amount of comfort, not 

 only to the accustomed users of rubber goods, but to 

 that immense section of the world's population to 

 which rubber and rubber goods are as yet unknown. 



It is hard to see how the price of crude rubber can 

 fall below a level profitable to owners of existing plan- 

 tations which have been based on good business prin- 

 ciples and conducted with intelligence. So long as 



