464 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June 1, 1914. 



rUtt notwithstanding the inoffensive nature of this legis- 

 lation word comes from a -Middle West city that the 

 motorists of that place propose some retaliative measures 

 aimed at the non-motorists. The Auto Club of this 

 particular city is bending its energies to have an ordi- 

 nance passed making it a misdemeanor for the pedestrian 

 to cross a street anywhere except at the corners. That 

 is, if Mrs. .^inith lives in the middle of the block and her 

 daughter Jane just across the street, and Mrs. Smith 

 wants to run over and see how matters are progressing 

 at Jane's, and she cuts across instead of trudging to 

 the corner and back again, she is liable to arrest, fine and 

 probabh- imprisonment. The contention of the automo- 

 bile club is this — that pedestrians never get run over at 

 the corners, as the chauffeur at that point is on the look- 

 out, but that accidents almost invariably occur between 

 corners, as the chauffeur's vigilance is then relaxed. 



Of course one sympathizes with the motorist, who 

 naturally dislikes to run over more persons than is neces- 

 sary, but it is quite probable that a city ordinance for- 

 bidding pedestrians the use of the streets except at the 

 regular corner crossings would hardly stand the test of 

 constitutionality, for altho the owners of autos purchase in 

 the course of the year S125.O0O.OOO worth of tires and 

 are therefore entitled to profound consideration, the plain 

 people whij plod about on the humlile feet that nature 

 gave them are still generally held to have some rights to 

 the highways. At any rate there are a great many of 

 these plain people and it will not answer to get too jaunty 

 with them. 



BOYCOTTING OLD JOHN BARLEYCORN. 



'"T'H AT ancient and obstreperous institution, the saloon, 

 ■^ which has view'ed with serene indifference all efforts 

 of the moralist to dislodge it, is now beating an ignomini- 

 ous retreat before the ruthless advance of the efficiency 

 expert. The railroads discovered some years ago that 

 a man with a few assorted drinks diffused through his 

 works was a poor jierson to trust a trainload of human 

 freight to. Then manufacturers began to suspect that 

 alcohol was of no particular efficacy in helping a work- 

 man run a complicated machine. 



The .American Foundrymen's .\ssociation, through its 

 Committee on Prevention of .Accidents, is trying to drive 

 the saloon to a wholesome distance from all foundries. 

 The committee is gathering records of injuries resulting 

 from the proximity of bars to the shops, and every evi- 

 dence of the loss of life and limb among foundrymen 

 attributable to too easy access to the saloon will be laid 

 before the legislatures of the different states. 



This is a subject of just as much importance to manu- 

 facturers of rubber goods as to those who work in steel 

 and iron. Every ])lant where men and machinery are 

 operating together in the serious work of useful ])roduc- 

 tion — and ])articularly every factory where the work is 

 at all hazardous and where carelessness may be attended 

 with disastrous results — should have a good wide safety 

 zone around it witliin whicli the Demon Rum siiould never 

 be permitted to show horn or hoof. 



RUBBER WORKS FOR THE HUMAN INTERIOR. 



T Jit iHLV exhilarating reports come from abroad to the 



•*• •*• effect that a learned surgeon associated with the 

 University of Paris has succeeded by certain experiments 

 on human subjects in showing "the feasibility of grafting 

 India rubber on living tissue." Two illustrations are 

 cited, one where the experimenter — according to the re- 

 port — inserted a thin layer of rubber between the bone 



and flesh of a finger and another where — the patient evi- 

 dently, after the manner of mankind, having some stomach 

 distress — "a thick sheet of rubber grafted into the abdom- 

 inal cavity gave absolute and permanent relief." 



The average layman has become a little inclined to hesi- 

 tate in accepting at their face value all the reports that 

 come from the laboratories ; he is rather disposed to label 

 them 'A'aluable When \'erified." Not that the research- 

 ers would be guilty of inveracity, but simply that the won- 

 derful discoveries made behind laboratory doors some- 

 times take on strange and startling aspects when they 

 leak out into the outside world. But if these latest reports 

 should prove true, and if one's interior repairs could all 

 be made by proper rubber adjustments, what a boon it 

 would be ! How fine when one is out of sorts to get back 

 into condition again simply by the proper insertion of a 

 rubber plate here and a rubber disc there and the intro- 

 duction of a few assorted rubber tubes ! Perhaps the day 

 will come when a man who isn't quite up to the mark can 

 go into the nearest rubber store and select for himself a 

 new pericardium of Upriver fine and a guaranteed eso- 

 phagus of Plantation pale crepe. What would be more 

 satisfying when a man is conscious of being a little under 

 the weather than to take an afternoon off and have all his 

 vitals revulcanized ! 



RE RUBBER THIEVING. 



THE whole trade is to be congratulated upon the quiet 

 persistence with which rublier manufacturers and 

 wholesale scrap dealers report to the Rubber Stealings 

 Committee of the Rubber Club offerings of suspicious 

 lots of rubber. The alertness of the committee in follow- 

 ing up the information thus secured is also to be com- 

 mended. Their plan of dealing with the thieves, while 

 bearing the impress of novelty, is perfectly sound and 

 verv far-reaching. 



