462 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September 1, 1911. 



RUBBER INVESTORS FRIGHTENED. 



|\ ^AXV conditions are conspiring to fill with fear the 

 ^^ ^ hearts of European investors in rubber planta- 

 tion stocks. 



Foremost is the exasperating way in which the price 

 of crude rubber clings to the dollar level, nor docs the 

 fact that rubber planting is extremely profitable, even 

 at this low price, abate their fears. 



Tlien there is synthetic rubber, not rumors of it, Vmt 

 actual exhibitions of process and product, by men who 

 must be taken seriously. So it happens that many are 

 selling out even at a loss. Those who cannot find a mar- 

 ket at satisfactory prices are beginning a campaign of 

 inquiry and criticism. For the first time they wish more 

 light upon ])lantation expenditures of every sort. They 

 studiously compare production returns for Ceylon, the 

 Malay States and Java ; they write letters of complaint, 

 of advice, and the banner companies, as Vallambroja, 

 continue paying almost unbelievably big dividends. 



SYNTHETIC RUBBER EFFECTS. 



THE bugaboo of the rubber planter, synthetic rubber, 

 has arrived at last, not as a fearsome dream, but as 

 an actuality. Two companies with laboratories in Eng- 

 land produce it at will. Not in ton lots, to be sure, and 

 not of the quality of up river fine, Init real rublier never- 

 theless and at a cost, if their figures are correct, that 

 points to commercial possibilities. 



It had always been supposed that such a discovery 

 would immediately put millions into the pockets of the 

 discoverers, and put out of business those who gather 

 from nature's sources. There is no indication that either 

 happening is imminent. It will be a long time, under the 

 most favorable circumstances, before the laboratories can 

 be turned into factories, and a production say as great as 

 that of guayule is reached. Or supposing within one or 

 two years such amount were marketable, would it not be 

 absorbed with ease as were guayule, the higher grades of 

 reclaimed rubber, and the mineral plastics, and would not 

 the onlv marked elTect be a steadying of tlic market? 

 h'urthermore, the pioneers in extracting and treating 

 guayule, pontianak and in high grade reclaiming, found 

 that the well-equipped laboratories in the l)ig rulilier 

 mills the world over were extracting, treating and re- 

 claiming by methods imitative or original, and that some 

 kept pace with them in production. Is it not ])ossible 

 that the same alert manufacturers are already making 

 isoprcne, and that one day a jilant for synllietic rul)l>er 



production will be as common an adjunct to a rul)l)cr 

 factory as the present reclaiming plant ? Were this 

 accomplished, its effect would not be to kill the business 

 of rubber gathering, wild or planted. Reclaiming for the 

 trade is neither killed nor handicapped by the individual 

 reclaiming plants. If s\iitlietic rubber enters the market 

 it will be quietly, gradually, and with no ap[)arent cffec; 

 upon existing conditions. 



NOLO CONTENDERE, $1,000. JACKSON, NIHIL. 



f K THE year 1900 there appeared in trade circles a 

 •■• man by the name of Jackson. Or, to be exact, 

 he did not appear except at intervals, and then 

 only to a selected few. He had, so it is to be assumed, 

 improved upon the old time trade associations with 

 their "gentlemen's agreements" by evolving "pools." 

 According to rumor, he formed hundreds of them, pool- 

 ing every sort of production from soap to suspension 

 bridges. There was much mystery in his method of 

 work, in the terms of agreement, and in the personnel 

 of those whom he pooled. He had modest offices in 

 New York, and except to those with whom he was do- 

 ing business had little to say of an informing nature. 

 To what extent his pooling operations reached no one 

 knows. As far as the rubber trade is concerned he 

 seems to have brought the most im[)ortant of the in- 

 sulated wire concerns into agreement. It is said that 

 their pool ceased to exist some time ago, but the Fed- 

 eral government, nevertheless cited those concerned 

 to court and on a general plea of nolo contendere 

 fined each individual all the way from $1,000 up. Jack- 

 son, of whose fertile brain the pool was born, is said 

 to be in Europe. They fined the rubber men, but can- 

 not find Jackson. 



LESSONS FROM RUBBER MILL FIRES. 



THE July Quarterly of the National Fire Protection 

 Association records two recent fires in ru])ber 

 manufacturing establishments. In one case the fire had 

 started in a rubl)er spreader, and had stead!!}- ex- 

 tended all over the machine, causing a great deal of 

 heat and dense smoke. Thirteen sprinklers opened, the 

 principal damage being to balloon and aero cloth in 

 ])roecss in the spreader room. Among the recommend- 

 ations based on tlie facts, it is remarked that ample 

 floor drainage is important in rooms where volatile 

 li(|uids are used. In this case the water seems to have 

 l)een (|uickly carried outside the building, owing to 

 ample ilrainasre. 



