98 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1910. 



AFFAIRS IN MEXICO. 



THE daily press during the few days preceding this issue of 

 The India Rubber World has been filled with conflicting 

 reports of political disturbances in northern Mexico. Owing 

 to the temporary interruption of the usual means of communica- 

 tion, due in part to extraordinary measures by the Mexican gov- 

 ernment to control the situation, it has not been an easy matter 

 for the outside world to keep accurately informed as to details. 

 The subject is mentioned here for the reason that the region of 

 the disturbances is in the center of the guayule rubber interest. 



As is well known, a large amount of American capital is in- 

 vested in the Mexican guayule interest— j"st as so much Amer- 

 ican capital is involved in mining and rubber plantation interests 

 elsewhere in that republic. It happens that the date of this pub- 

 lication coincides with that for the inauguration of Porfirio Diaz 

 as president for a new term. The opposition to the reelection of 

 General Diaz appears to have been concentrated in northern 

 Mexico, and Senor Don Francisco I. Madcro, a member of the 

 important Mexican family of Madero concerned in the guayule 

 interest, has been prominent in the new movement opposed to the 

 federal government. 



There has not been time as yet for outsiders to become in- 

 formed in relation to the real questions at issue, but there is no 

 reason to suppose that the regularly constituted government of 

 Mexico is seriously threatened. Certain rumors that the dis- 

 turbances in Mexico had as their basis an anti-American senti- 

 ment seem to have been wholly without basis. In fact, Senor 

 Madero has made it plain in all his public utterances that Amer- 

 ican interests in the Mexican republic are not to be disturbed in 

 any waj'. The claim is put forth that the movement has not 

 been so much a protest against President Diaz as against cer- 

 tain governmental methods in which other members made them- 

 selves objectionable. 



As this issue goes to press the indictions are that the dis- 

 turbances will soon have become less acute, and doubtless the 

 incident— as the diplomatists say— can be considered closed. In 

 any event, judging from the past history of Mexican affairs, there 

 is no reason to look for any interruption in the production of so 

 important a commodity as the guayule rubber. 



THE COMING RUBBER EXHIBITION. 



ago of the rubber interests of Holland and her colonies, com- 

 prising manufactures, the crude rubber trade, and rubber planta- 

 tions. The new committee was appointed by decree of her 

 Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands of October IS, 1910, 

 No. SO. 



All the French colonies have booked space officially, in addi- 

 tion to many French manufacturers, and it is stated that it is 

 now proposed to appoint a special commission. 



Referring to a report of the fire at the Brussels Exposition 

 [see The India Rubber World, September 1, 1910 — page 437], it 

 appears than an error occurred in reporting the destruction of 

 the very complete display of rubber stamp vulcanizers and rubber 

 stamps and like goods belonging to the J. F. W. Dorman Co. 

 (Baltimore, Maryland). This exhibit was preserved, and ar- 

 rangements arc making for presenting it at the London rubber 

 exhibition. 



AT a recent meeting of the honorary advisory committee of 

 the Rubber Exhibition, held at the London Chamber of 

 Commerce, the chairman (Mr. H. Kerr Rutherford) proposed 

 that a vote of thanks be accorded the donors of the various 

 trophies presented for competition, and that a copy of this reso- 

 lution be sent them. 



At the same meeting it was resolved "That this committee in- 

 vite and will heartily welcome the rubber manufacturers of the 

 world to hold an international meeting during the currency of 

 the Exhibition, to enable them to confer upon subjects of mutual 

 interest, protection and profit to themselves and the industry 

 generally." 



Several of the more important rubber manufacturing con- 

 cerns in Great Britain have arranged already to be represented 

 at the rubber exhibition, and other concerns in that country are 

 considering the question of making exhibits. Germany and 

 France are doing very well in this connection, and it is under- 

 stood that Ncthcrland exhibits will be twice as extensive as at 

 the last exhibition. 



The Netherlands section of the Rubber Exhibition of 1908 will 

 be remembered as one of its most complete and interesting 

 features. The Netherlands Committee appointed for the 1911 

 Exhibition is constituted practically of the same membership as 

 on the former occasion, fourteen of the eighteen members of the 

 new committee having served in 1908. This fact alone promises 

 a repetition of the important representation at London two years 



OBITUARY. 



OCTAVE CHANDTE. 



"T^HE progress of aerial navigation, which interest is proving- 

 ■*• of so much importance to the rubber industry, has been 

 for the period of its greater development compassed in the life 

 of Octave Chanute, a civil engineer of note who, born in Paris 

 in 1832, and spent the greater part of his life in America, died in 

 Chicago on November 22, 1910. He was at one time president 

 of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and had to do with 

 many important problems in railway engineering, and was con- 

 nected with all the leading civil engineering societies in the 

 world. As recently as twenty years ago, though by that time 

 he had devoted not a little study to the subject of aviation, he 

 wrote for a leading engineering publication a comprehensive 

 article, the point of which was that the only apparent progress 

 made in this field to that date was that it had now become pos- 

 sible for one to discuss this subject without being regarded as a 

 "crank." Mr. Chanute had the satisfaction of living until not 

 only had the possibility of practical aviation been demonstrated, 

 but its great practical uses were recognized. Mr. Chanute will 

 be regarded ultimately in many minds as having been the "father 

 of aviation." 



DEATH OF TWO AUTHOHITIES ON RUBBER. 



The death is reported of Professor Dr. Melchior Treub, who 

 during his long service as director of agriculture in the Dutch 

 East Indies not only made the botanical gardens at Buitenzorg, 

 Java, an international institution, but gave a great incentive to 

 the culture of india-rubber and gutta-percha. Dr. Treub was 

 born in Holland on December 26, 1851, and after extensive and 

 important preparatory work was appointed director of the gar- 

 dens in Buitenzorg in 1880, holding this position until during the 

 past year. In connection with the London Rubber Exhibition of 

 1908 he was president of the sub-committee for the East Indies 

 of the able royal Netherlands Committee. 



The death is reported also of Dr. W. Burck, another native 

 of Holland, who devoted much of his life to scientific work in 

 the East Indies, being at one time sub-director of the Buitenzorg 

 gardens during the administration of Dr. Treub. A notable work 

 by Dr. Burck was a monograph on the Asiatic Sapotacece, in 

 which he considered the botanical origins of the commercial 

 gutta-perchas. Dr. Burck was born on February 4, 1848; the 

 last years of his colonial service were devoted to tlie coffee plant- 

 ing interest; the last eight years he spent at Leyden University, 

 in scientific work. 



Mr. Frank A. Seiberling, president of the Goodyear Tire and 

 Rubber Co. (Akron, Ohio), spoke before the Ohio Academy of 

 Science at its twentieth annual meeting at Buchtel College, at 

 Akron, on November 25. His remarks covered a recent journey 

 to the regions of the Amazon country and pictured very inter- 

 estingly the rubber industry of the Amazon Valley. 



