462 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June 1. 1914. 



parity in favor of En^afland and the Continent continues 

 the present banking- system is likely to remain. Some day 

 undoubtedly we will transact our financial operations, 

 in the purchase of Amazon rubber, directly between New 

 York and Para, but not until the value of the Brazilian 

 imports from the United States more nearly approaches 

 the value of American imports from that country. 



THE NEW MARKET OPENED BY THE PANAMA 



CANAL. 



MUCH has been said about the vast new market for 

 American goods which will be opened up on the 

 completion of the Panama Canal, and the manufacturers 

 of the United States have been entreated to make ample 

 preparations to occupy this market before it has been 

 preempted by our active rivals across the water. This 

 is i,a"iod advice and American goods ought certainly to 

 be much more largely in evidence on the West Coast of 

 South America than they ever have been along its At- 

 lantic side. 



On the surface, at least, it looks as if this new market 

 were most promising. Here is a vast stretch of terri- 

 torj- extending from the Pacific to the Andes, and over 

 the Andes, and reaching from the Isthmus of Panama 

 to the Strait of Alagellan — a distance of almost 5,0C0 

 miles — and occupied by about fifteen million people, who 

 hitherto have been so remote as to be of comparatively 

 little interest to us, but who now in the matter of trade 

 are to be brotight almost to our doors. This would cer- 

 tainly seem like a great opportunity for extending our 

 commerce. 



Rut here is an instance where enthusiasm should be 

 tempered with discretion, for these fifteen million people 

 are not altogether like an equal number of our own 

 countrymen. In fact the situation is far otherwise. To 

 go a little into detail — there is Colombia with five mil- 

 lion inhabitants, only 300,000 of whom are white, the 

 rest being of mixed breeds or Indians and negroes ; and 

 Ecuador with 1,500,000 people, only 150,000 of them 

 being white and one million of them being Indians; — 

 and so on down the coast. Of the fifteen million the 

 Caucasian element represents about one-eighth. The 

 mestizos or mixed race constitute a little less than one- 

 half, while the rest of this aggregation — or nearly one- 

 half — is composed of negroes and Indians. Obviously, 

 this is quite a different market from any that the Ameri- 

 can manufacturer is familiar with. Its ability to absorb 

 manufactured goods in great variety and in large quan- 

 tities has yet to be proved. 



The opening of the canal will undoubtedly substan- 



tially increase the prosperity and the buying power of 

 our neighbors along the West Coast of South America, 

 and these communities will liegin to develop as never 

 before, but in view of the ethnological character of a 

 vast majority of these people this development is not 

 likely to be phenomenally rapid. It seems quite safe to 

 predicate, therefore, that while the Panama Canal will 

 assuredly ojjen up a new and ever expanding market for 

 .Vmerican goods, it is a market that must be investigated 

 with care and entered with considerable circtimspection. 



THE TIRE BRINGS BACK THE WAR CHARIOT. 



WHEN Achilles and Agamemnon and tiie rest of 

 that breed of hard hitters went forth for a brisk 

 afternoon's work they mounted their war chariots and 

 started for the fray on wheels; but later the war chariot 

 fell into conspicuous desuetude — it was too unwieldy 

 and too uncomfortable — and for many centuries the faith- 

 ful horse has been looked to to provide military leaders 

 with the necessary transportation. 



But this mess in Mexico, if it has effected no other 

 purpose, has at least served to show that the war chariot 

 is back in the game ; changed a little, to be sure, depend- 

 ing on gasolene for its propulsion and on the rubber tire 

 to give it sinooth passage over the ruts and rocks. Early 

 in the proceedings both the Federals and the Rebels got 

 possession of as many high-power autos as their cash 

 and credit could secure, and these machines — about a 

 hundred of them, all told, in the two armies, and prac- 

 tically all of American make and shod with American 

 tires — have been in constant use for the swift mobiliza- 

 tion of the commanders and their stafifs. 



As the motor car has pushed the horse — a fine fellow, 

 but with obvious limitations — out of many of his peaceful 

 vocations, so it seems destined to crowd him out of his 

 proud place at the head of the advancing column. This 

 is a iTiove in the right direction, for war, as General 

 Sherman used to say, is nasty business ; and if men con- 

 clude that nothing will do but they must get out their 

 guns and pump away at one another it is much better 

 to leave the unoffending horse out of it and use as a 

 substitute target the rubber tire, which when punctured 

 to pieces under the deadly fire the manufacturer stands 

 ready and able, and extremely willing, to replace. 



HOW THE RUBBER COUNTRY SERVED THE 

 COLONEL. 



""T'HE foremost Ainerican citizen — at least in private 



' life — has just emerged from a three months' jaunt 



through the rubber country of the Madeira. To be sure. 



