June 1, 1914, 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



463 



he did not embark on that tour of exploration primarily 

 to acquire information about the Hevea Brasiliensis, but 

 undouhledly when the interesting story of his travels is 

 told it will be found to contain much of imijorlance on 

 the flora as well as the fauna of that hitherto unexplored 

 region, liut even before the appearance of this exciting 

 chronicle his experience is certainly most illuminating in 

 regard to the ability of the white man to endure tiie nuilti- 

 form hazards of tiial wild domain. 



Here is a man with a constitution of iron and nerves 

 of steel, who led the fighting regiment of the Spanish 

 war and returned home, as he expressed it at the time, 

 "disgraceful!} fat": who guided the ship of state fur 

 seven _\ears through continuous tumult and never lost 

 an hour's sleep; who spent a winter in the heart of .Vfrica 

 and hardly once removed the cork from his pocket flask 

 of health invigorator — and yet after a few weeks along 

 the waters that feed the Amazon he emerges with forty or 

 fifty pounds of good American avoirdupois left in tlie 

 jungle, celebrates his arrival in New York harbor by a 

 succession of chills and comes down the gang-])lank lean- 

 ing on a cane. Not that anybody need to fear that this 

 distinguished American is i^ermanently disabled — for it 

 would take more than three months in any locality known 

 to geography or mythology to efface or even seriously 

 curtail the doughty Colonel — but his sojourn on t'.ie un- 

 known tributaries of the Amazon certainly left its marks. 



This emphasizes the tremendous advantage which the 

 Eastern plantations enjoy over the wild rubber districts 

 of Brazil, for in the plantation "-onntry the white man 

 not only can live but can pursue his vocations in as 

 regular a fashion and under as comfortable conditions as 

 at home, while along the waters of the Amazon the native 

 must gather the rubber unattended, as no white man can 

 long keep him company there. 



But this may all be changed some day. This clean- 

 up idea that has lately seized upon our .American munici- 

 palities is not a local fad; it is steadily moving around 

 the globe, and sanitary science is attacking one plague 

 spot after another. Some day it will undoubtedly reach 

 the basin of the Amazon, and wdiite men w'ill then be 

 able to work in those vast rubber districts without the 

 perpetual ]5resence of the dread and deadly fever. 



innocent person. H the law is intended for the protec- 

 tion of the good it is quite likely to extend some protec- 

 tion to the evil; and if its intent is the punishment of the 

 'icious it often happens that some of the virtuous also 

 feel its punitive possibilities. 



The statute enacted in the State of New York some 

 time ago compelling large corporations to submit their 

 lists of stockholders to any stockholder who might ask 

 to see tiiem was undoubtedly most wholesome in its inten- 

 tion, its purpose being part of the general plan to make 

 large corporations do their work in the open, where 

 investors and possible investors may get some idea of 

 their operations ; but this enactment has given rise to a 

 new industry which is bound to be harmful in proportion 

 as it is successful. A number of people, either indi- 

 vidually or in partnership, have purchased a single share 

 of stock in the big corporations (this entailing practically 

 no expense, as the share can be sold at practically the 

 same figure when it is no longer needed) and, armed 

 with this certificate, have demanded the company's list 

 of stockholders. This list has then been copied and sold 

 at a very profitable figure to that class of operators who 

 supply the public with shares in imaginary rubber plan- 

 tations and non-existent oil wells. So this statute, in- 

 tended to give a proper publicity to the operations of the 

 giant corporations, in reality, as one of its minor effects, 

 compels them to expose their stockholders to all the 

 wiles of the conscienceless jironioter and the purveyor 

 of assorted gold bricks. 



THE INCIDENTAL INJUSTICE OF JUSTICE. 



RETALIATING ON THE PEDESTRIAN. 



IT is certainly difficult, if not quite impossible, so to 

 frame a law, no matter how salutary in its general 

 effect, that it will not operate to the detriment of some 



'"T'HI^ annual crop of automobile laws is now about in. 

 ■»■ and it compares quite favorably w^ith former years. 

 Most of the -State legislatures have put up their shutters 

 for the vear and the lawmakers gone back to their con- 

 fiding constituents for a season of well-earned repose. 

 During the sessions of the legislatures recently closed 

 182 bills were introduced affecting the status and regu- 

 lating the activities of the motorist, but fortunately only 

 23 — hardh' more than one-eighth of them — passed, and 

 none of them was of a character greatly to distress the 

 antomobilist or tho.se interested in his well being. Most 

 of these acts related to the use of lights, the regulation 

 of speed, registration and other matters which properly 

 come within the scope of legislative action. .Accordingly 

 the product of the law-producing machinery for the sea- 

 son of 1913-14 may be placed under the general classifica- 

 tion of "Might Be Worse." 



