September- 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



489 



where you not only can buy but can also sell and get out when 

 you want to. 



The open markets have their quotations generally published, so 

 jiearly every one hears of the fluctuations, but the fluctuations 

 seldom compare with or are as wide as in commodities without 

 the benefit of an open market. The speculator, pure and simple, 

 is very apt to act as a governing valve — he makes it his business 

 to get full and complete information of stocks, figures on demand 

 and probable future supplies, and if the market goes to e.xtremes. 

 either way, either goes short or long as the case may be and 

 checks the movement. Some of the big commission houses have 

 their experts always in the field, going from crop to crop ; cot- 

 ton to corn and wheat and from country to country, reporting on 

 crop conditions and reserves still in first hands. These reports 

 come in continually and supplement the Government reports is- 

 sued from time to time, so that the farmer in Kansas, as well 

 as the trader in Chicago or New York, know at all times the 

 conditions covering crops and stocks all over the world. 



With an open active future trading market here, I do not 

 think rubber, last year, would have sold up to $3.00 per pound, 

 as many traders would have sold it on the advance before it 

 reached that limit which every one familiar with conditions felt 

 was an artificial, hysterical price which could not be maintained, 

 and a price which never should have obtained, and which was 

 demoralizing to legitimate business and manufacturers. 



The advantages of an exchange like the Xew York Produce 

 Exchange is that it systemizes trading and enables traders in 

 every commodity to trade under rules which all members have 

 to live up to. It has committees to arbitrate and settle all dis- 

 putes, without the delay and expense of the courts, and as the 

 committees are business men, thoroughly conversant with trade 

 customs and commodities, their decisions are very likely to be 

 nearer exact justice than a judgment by a court based on tech- 

 nicalities or legal quibbles. The exchange has the machinery for 

 collecting statistics from all markets and the statistics for an- 

 other commodity can be easily added, at a minimum expense. 

 This information is for the benefit of all members and probably 

 would be much more complete than any now obtainable, except 

 at a great expense for cables. 



An e.xchange with regular trading hours also brings all the 

 active traders in any commodity together, so that they can all 

 get better acquainted with each other. 



An e.xchange is notliing more or less than a common meeting 

 place for the comfort and convenience of traders in a commodity 

 where they can trade under equitable rules and with assurance 

 that each and every trader will have to live up to his trades 

 and obligations. 



I feel that an open official spot and future trading market under 

 the auspices of an exchange, with proper trade rules and com- 

 mittees to control trades, and its facilities to gather and dis- 

 seminate information, would tend to broaden the interest in 

 rubber— enable the manufacturer to eliminate speculation and 

 prove beneficial to the trade in general. It has proved so with 

 other commodities, and I think a fair trial with rulibcr would 

 work out the same way. 



Yours respectfully. 



New York. .Arthur Dyer. 



TIME NOT HIPE YET. 



Replying to your letter, my opinion is that the time is not yet 

 ripe to list crude rubber on the New York Produce Exchange. 

 At present the price of crude rubber is largely regulated by specu- 

 lative influences and not by the natural law of supply and demand. 

 I do not believe it would be for the good of the trade to enlarge 

 the field for speculation. 



If the present rate of increase in plantation receipts continues, 

 we will soon have much greater stability in the market price of 

 rubber. We could then discuss the advantages and disadvantages 



of having it listed, but at present I do not believe that the Ex- 

 change could offer any inducements which would offset the harm- 

 ful result of bringing more outside speculators into the field. 

 Very truly yours, 



Bertr.am G. Work, 

 President, The B. F. Goodrich Co., Akron, Ohio. 



MASKET CONDITIONS DIFFERENT HERE. 



Referring to your letter, I would say that I have delayed reply 

 in order to give the matter thoughtful attention, which I have 

 now done. 



I cannot see how it would be of advantage to the manufac- 

 turers to have rubber listed upon the New York Produce Ex- 

 change. The business in this country is done on an entirely 

 different basis than in other countries. Here it is done direct be- 

 tween importer and consumer. There it is done through brokers. In 

 the foreign exchanges the broker having his orders to buy or 

 his inquiry from the consumer for a price, goes to the Exchange 

 at certain hours daily. The seller also passes certain hours 

 daily "on 'change," and the two meet and make their trades to- 

 gether on the floor of the Exchange. Here manufacturers do not 

 employ brokers, but the buying is done by the principals them- 

 selves, and these principals are too busy with the details of their 

 manufacturing to pass their time at the Exchange, even if their 

 headquarters were in New York, and, as you know a large part 

 of the consumption of rubber is by people a long distance from 

 New York, I doubt if any of the principals would care to entrust 

 to others the buying of their rubber supplies. Unless these people 

 would become members of the Exchange and pass their time 

 on the floor, I cannot see how the listing of quotations could 

 benefit them. 



I can see where advantages could be derived through the 

 establishment of boards of arbitration, of classification and 

 inspection, but unless the rubber people should become members 

 of the New York Produce Exchange and thus bear their share 

 of the expenses of maintaining the Exchange, then that body 

 would not, of course, be likely to interest themselves in the 

 affairs of the rubber people, and I doubt if the latter could be 

 made to see sufficient advantages to encourage them to the 

 necessary expenditure. 



Sincerely yours, 



A. W. Stedman, 

 New York Commercial Co., New York. 



FEAR IT WOULD ADD TO SPECTTLATION. 



With regard to the subject of your letter, the writer has too 

 little information to form an intelligent opinion as to whether the 

 plan, if carried out, is liable to result to the benefit or detriment 

 of rubber manufacturers and therefore, manifestly, is in no 

 position to give an expression for publication. Beyond what 

 you have written and the rumor that the subject had been 

 mooted, we have no knowledge of the details of the plan or what 

 would be involved. If the listing of crude rubber tended toward 

 making the crude rubber business any more speculative than it is 

 at present, as we fear it might, our opinion is that it would be 

 detrimental to manufacturers' interests generally. However, it 

 would be useless for the writer to attempt any opinion without 

 more knowledge of the working plan. 



Yours faithfully, 



C. N. Can DEE, 

 Secretary and General Manager, The Gutta Percha & Rubber 

 Mfg. Co. of Toronto, Limited. 



FAVORS SEPARATE ORGANIZATION. 



Replying to yours of recent date, I beg to say that any action 

 on the part of the users of crude rubber that would standardize 

 the quality, regulate prices, and assimilate and distribute in- 

 formation, would be, in my judgment, a move in the right direc- 



