254 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 1, 1911. 



can be told almost to a certainty just what product can 

 be secured in a very few years if reasonable care in loca- 

 tion and in management are exercised. The chief value 

 to the company will not be the profits of such a plaiiia- 

 tion, however great they may be. Il will be the assurance 

 of a constant supply of rubber at a low, unvarying cost. 

 The vulnerability of any large rubber company may 

 easily be measured by the amount of rubber it uses. The 

 greater the output of manufactured goods, the greater 

 sufferers they may be from corners, and crop short- 

 ages. Once such a plantation is producing on a 

 scale commensurate with the needs of the company, there 

 will result a greater steadiness in the market, and an in- 

 creased difficulty in manipulating it. The earlier their 

 rubber trees begin to yield the better it will be for the 

 rubber trade of the world. 



It has been very generally felt by rubber manufac- 

 turers that it was not within their province to plant 

 rubber. Indeed, it is only within the last half dozen 

 years that they were willing to concede that rubber 

 could be cultivated upon a large scale, and successfully 

 compete with the wild product. That a change of sen- 

 timent is at hand is already evident. Russian, German, 

 English and American rubber manufacturers already 

 are very considerable owners in Hevea plantations, and 

 the number is constantly increasing. 



That the ultra conservative should deprecate such a 

 departure from the traditions of the trade is perhaps 

 natural, and yet they read of great steel companies and 

 little ones, too, buying iron prospects and locating and 

 mining their own ore. Or, what is a better parallel, they 

 know that the great chocolate factories of Europe and 

 America get their cacao supplies from their own tropi- 

 cal plantations. The fact that a company is making 

 steel billets does not seem to militate against its suc- 

 cess as an ore producer. The officials of the chocolate 

 company are able to select land, plant it and get just 

 as good crops of cacao as if they were planters, and 

 planters only. Why then should not the rubber manu- 

 facturer secure land and install a plantation "unit" as 

 well administered as any other in his organization? 



MORE "REAL RUBBER" IN TIRES. 



' I 'HE .Automobile Club of America, the richest, 

 ■* largest and the most enterprising of all automo- 

 bile clubs, runs an up-to-date supply department for 

 its members. Here one may buy any automobile ac- 

 cessory and notably — tires. Not all tires, but such 

 makes as the club believes it safe to market. This is 



usual with many clubs. What is somewhat unusual 

 is tile selling of a new tire, made especially and exclu- 

 sively for the club and available to its members only. 

 According to common report, this tire is not to be 

 made by any of the great successful tire manufactur- 

 ers. If gossips tell the truth, it will be produced by a 

 small company, not very well known, and one that is 

 yet to prove that it can. no matter what its backing, 

 create a tire that is better than today's best. No doubt 

 the Executive Committee of the Automobile Club be- 

 lieve exactly what they are stating to club members — 

 that "these tires will be superior in every respect to 

 the best tires turned out today by any manufacturer; 

 of extraordinar}' durability and resiliency, and of ex- 

 ceedingly high grade and degree of excellence, with 

 more real rubber in their composition than any tires 

 now on the market." Granting their absolute honesty, 

 their unquestioned interest in everything that is best 

 for the club, that one sentence proclaims to any rubber 

 manufacturer a lack of knowledge of the subject they 

 treat. They promise, for example, "more rubber" in 

 their tire than is to be found in any other tire of equal 

 size. That is, they take it for granted that more rubber 

 in a tire compound will make the tire better. That un- 

 doubtedly is true of low-grade tires, but is absolutely 

 not true of the best grades. We don't expect to be 

 believed by any except those who understand rubber 

 compounding when we say that the addition of 10 per 

 cent, or 15 per cent, of rubber to the best tire com- 

 pound in existence toda}' would probably shorten the 

 life of that tire 25 per cent, or more. In all friendliness 

 and with the greatest respect for the Executive Com- 

 mittee of the Automobile Club, we counsel caution. 



THE "MONSTROUS MYSTERY." 



IT IS perhaps a bit late, as it happened some months 

 *" ag(i, but the expressions have not been withdrawn, 

 and as they soak in they seem more offensive. They 

 are credited to the very able and usually well balanced 

 president of the National Fire Protection Association, 

 who is quoted as follows: "In fire hose, the arteries 

 and veins of our fire departments, we find manufac- 

 turers making a monstrous mystery of their wares." 



To begin with, a man possessed of the oratorical 

 temperament should not be held too strictly to account 

 for his utterances before an applauding crowd. Ora- 

 torical intoxication is a possibility, and should be for- 

 given. "Monstrous mystery" is a beautiful alliterative 



