154 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Febrl-.\ry 1, 1911. 



load lots. In England for ton rate the price would be about 7 

 cents per pound, or £30 5j-. per long ton. Now, the average motor- 

 ist only lias a few tires to dispose of at a time, and anyone who 

 undertakes the collection of the 130 to 150 tires which go to the 

 ton is not in a position to pay more than a shilling or two for 

 each tire. Frequently when these few shillings are offered no 

 deal is effected, as the tire owner thinks he is being cheated. 

 Still, however, the collection is brought about, and whatever the 

 profit may be the bulk of the tires eventually t'lnd their way to 

 reclaiming works, such as the North Western, where I have 

 seen a huge heap of them. 



I AM frequently asked the question, "What is the address of 

 your paper?" and since the move some years ago to the danger- 

 ous-looking skyscraper in Broadway, I 

 have accustomed myself to answer 

 straight away . I could never feel certain 

 off-hand about the previous address, and now we have got to 

 something even worse to carry in the mind. I often wonder 

 whether New Yorkers remember their own addresses, and 

 whether cabmen are expected to carry them in their heads after 

 leaving the railway station or the club. I am not going to at- 

 tempt any such thing, and by way of being always ready with an 

 answer I have written The Indi.\ Rubber World's new address 

 plainly on some pieces of cardboard, one of which is put in each 

 suit of clothes. 



THE CHANGE 

 OF ABDEESS. 



RUBBER CONDITIONS IN PERU. 



'T'HE government of Peru is seeking by a liberal policy to 

 •*■ encourage the cultivation of rubber trees. A law has bee.i 

 approved under which the government will pay a premium 

 equivalent to about 1 shilling for each rubber tree grown on a 

 plantation when it has reached the age of 3 years. It is asserted 

 that under the favorable conditions which exist throughout the 

 Peruvian molilalia, capital carefully invested in rubber planting 

 there has practically a government guarantee of repayment at 

 the end of three or four years, while the investor would have 

 his plantation as clear profit. 



Commander Olivara, an officer in the Peruvian navy, has 

 been intrusted by his government with the work of inspecting 

 the rubber lands on the moiitaiia, and he encourages the invest- 

 ment of foreign capital in rubber enterprises. Thus far, however, 

 little foreign capital has been so employed. It is stated that all 

 the companies which are now engaged in e.xploiting rubber lands 

 in the republic have made substantial profits. 



There remains, however, the difficulty of transporting the rub- 

 ber, when collected, to the Peruvian ports on the Pacific — and it 

 is a long way to seaboard by way of the Amazon. Although 

 the distance which divides the Pacific coast from the moniana 

 is comparatively short (about 200 miles), its great difficulty, 

 from an enginering point of view, arises from the necessity of 

 crossing the Andes. But the government already, says The 

 financial News (London), has signed a contract for extending 

 the railway now extending into the interior from the port of 

 Callao, with the intention of making connection with the river 

 Ucayali, one of the streams which helps to form the Amazon. 

 Such a line would put the Pacific coast in close touch with the 

 Peruvian system of waterways on the other side of the .\ndes, 

 and thus enable Peru to retain the great part of her rubber 

 trade in her own territorv. 



PROFITS IN WASTE RUBBER. 



IX tluir annual review of the waste rubber market Theodore 

 *■ Hofcller & Co., of Buffalo, New York [Boston Coiniiirrctal 

 Bulletin, January 7) comment : 



"Our faith in the future of tlie old material business does not 

 blind us to the fact that there arc some conditions which are 

 not right. Nearly every line of business eventually discards 



sonietliing which must find its way to the dealer in old materials, 

 and as the volume of all other lines of business in the world 

 expands, the business in old materials increases accordingly. If 

 this inference is correct, it must follow that the old material 

 which finds its way to market must each year be constantly in- 

 creasing. Because of the usual abundance of old material, the 

 dealer in these goods is generally satisfied with the volume of 

 business, but he often complains, and with reason, that his 

 margin of profit is too small. He usually obtains full market 

 price when he sells, but the trouble appears to be that in his 

 eagerness to buy, his buying price is too close to the selling 

 price to leave a reasonable profit. 



"We do not know whether a campaign of education is possible 

 along these lines, but comment can do no harm and may be 

 productive of some good. We believe that in France, Germany 

 and England, dealers in our line of business are more conserva- 

 tive and have in mind volume of profit rather tlian volume of 

 liusiness. We are decidedly opposed to unlawful combinations 

 in restraint of trade, but we do believe in intelligent competition 

 that has the courage to let someone else have the busines' if it 

 does not yield a fair return on the investment. 



"We believe there is plenty of old material in this big world 

 of ours to satisfy everyone. What say you fellow dealers? 

 Would Vie not all be more contented if we were less keen on 

 the volume of our business and more keen on a reasonable 

 margin of profit? We believe that the future stability of the 

 business rests upon this point." 



GUTTA-PERCHA GOODS PRICES. 



[from "gUMMI-ZEITUNG," BERI.I.V.] 



DY gutta-percha goods manufacturing circles our attention is 

 •^ directed to an error that frequently occurs among cus- 

 tomers. It is supposed by some that rubber goods and gutta- 

 percha articles are made from the same raw material, or that 

 gutta-percha is only a variety of raw rubber. The conse- 

 quence is constantly repeated enquiries as to why the selling 

 prices of gutta-percha goods are not reduced in harmony with 

 the lower quotations for raw rubber. In regard to this, the 

 trade should be distinctly informed that raw rubber and raw 

 gutta-percha are two completely different materials, and that the 

 markets for these two raw materials are in every respect entirely 

 independent of each other. While the speculative operations of 

 the spring of 1910, in the course of which the asking price for 

 raw gutta-percha increased to the extent of about 300 per cent, 

 of the normal price, have fortunately ceased, the quotations, par- 

 ticularly of the medium and lower grades of raw gutta-percha, 

 are still so high that a redttction in the present selling price is 

 entirely outside of the realms of possibility. With the prevailing 

 very large demand and the exceedingly scant supply, all the con- 

 ditions for a clieapening of gutta-percha, within a visible period, 

 are absent; the prices show rather a decided tendency toward* 

 a further increase. In anj' event, the situatimi of raw rubber 

 cannot in any respect be connected with that of gutta-percha, 

 and all such references are based on error. Gutta-percha prices 

 are established quite independently : according to the present 

 situation a reduction in these goods is even less likely tlian in 

 rubber. 



The ge.\er.\l tendency toward specialization is illustrated 

 by our London contemporary, in dropping from its title several 

 words long familiar there, leaving only The Iiidia-Rubber Journal 

 to denote the field of the publication. Our own paper for ten 

 years appeared under the heading Indi.v Ribber World and 

 Electrical Tr.\des Review. With the advance of time, however, 

 the rubber interest has expanded to such an extent as to claim 

 the undivided attention of the journals devoted to it. leaving the 

 expansive electrical field to other specialized periodicals. 



