September' 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



461 



Fabliib«d on th* Itt of each Month \>y 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO. 



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 CADLB ADDRESS: IRWORLD, NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, Editor 



Vol. 44. 



SEPTEMBER I. 1911. 



No. 6 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



LlBKAl 



price of uprivcr line was 76 cents, tlial three years new YC 

 later its average was 52 cents higher, that still three BOTANH 

 years later it had dropped off 30 cents, that two years OARt>« 

 later slill it jiuni)ed $2.24 higher than in 1902, and 

 then sagged hack simie $2 a iKunid, it will he seen lli;ii 

 buyers were perforce speculators. 



The Amazonian producers do not want this sort of 

 uncertainty. It is e.xceedingly hard on the industry 

 ilKre inv them lo see ,'j-3 rnhl;er foi- a time and he prac- 

 tically millionaires and then ,S1 ruhher and he "broke." 

 Xo one can blame them for trying to coi'ral the sur]:)lus 

 that at least .$1..S0 be realized. .\or, were thev alAe to 

 insure that price ftjr, say, five years, would there be 

 the slightest objection on the i)art of the rubber niaiui- 

 facurers. 



It would, at first blush, seem as if Brazil's oppor- 

 tunity would be when rubber was high and there was 

 ])lenty of money. Such is human nature, however, that 

 the reverse is true. It is cata.stropiiies that bring out 

 what is in man or people. The low price of rubber, the 

 necessity for increased revenue will be the spur that 

 will urge Brazilian rubber [jroducers to improved l)U>i- 

 ness methods, lower first costs, planting, etc., that they 

 may compete with the rest of the rubl)er producing 

 world. 



THE RUBBER MARKET CHANGING. 



WILL PRICES EVER BE STABLE? 



T 



T 



HAT the marketing of crude rul)ber is likely to 

 undergo notable changes m the ne.xt few years 

 will hardly be disputed excei)t by those who desire 



H\i ])rice of crude rubber, [jresent <iiid tutnre, is no change. 



more interesting to the trade than an_\ other 

 topic. To manufacturer, planter, importer, broker, 

 whether he be located in Montreal or JMontexideo, I'e- 

 nang or I'aterson, ATanchester or Melbourne, Akron or 

 -Aden, the question is paramount. Who makes the 

 jirices wdien they are made? Whether or not the law of 

 supply and demand is more potent than speculati\e 

 influence? is beside the question if only there were 

 any degree of certaint}- about either the ups or the 

 downs. Two dollar rnbi)er, e\-en three dollar rubber, 

 does not matter if only it persist for a reasonable 

 period. The present comparatively low price of rubber 

 can be of no advantage to the manufacturer for a long 



Plantation ruliber in thousands of tons, free from 

 sand, bark, mud, stones and water has started the 

 whole wild rubber world toward the jjroduction of 

 gum equally clean, equally dry. 



Time was when no rubber manufacturer would 

 accept washed crude rubber. He feared, and some- 

 times justly, mixtures of less valuable sorts, difficult 

 of recognition except in the cure. \\'ashed rubbers are 

 today used everywhere, and the user finds that they 

 arc not as likely to be adulterated as are the wild sorts. 



In thi^ evolutionary peritid, when crude rubber is 

 gradually working up to higher and more stable le\-els, 

 it is perha])s possible that American listing on a stock 



time to come. A year of rubber at $1.08 to $1.15 exchange is in the line of real progress. However that 



o^ 



would be none too long to enable makers of rubber 



goods to adjust their prices after a period of $3 rubber. 



The price is immaterial if only it be somewhere near 



^-' permanent. When one remembers that in 1902 the 

 1 



a. 



may be, the story of the Produce i^2xchange bv its able 

 president and the views of some rubber manuf.acturers 

 in another column, cannot fail to be of more than ordi- 

 narv interest. 



