56 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1. 1913. 



Similar paragraphs appear quite frequently in the 

 press of smaller communities, showing that the collection 

 of old rubber articles for the assistance of various chari- 

 table institutions is not an uncommon practice. Xow nc 

 one ever heard of a hospital or similar institution asking 

 friends to bring collections of old shoes, rimless or 

 crownless hats or punctured tin pails, for all these use- 

 ful commodities when once worn out have served their 

 full purpose and have no further worth: I)ut it an article 

 is made of rubber it may be worn out and useless in that 

 particular capacity, but the rubber it contains still re- 

 mains of value. So while these discarded tires, worn- 

 out shoes, broken water bags and punctured pieces of 

 garden hose have in themselves no recuperative proper- 

 ties which may be applied to the patients in the hospital 

 wards, they can be turned over to the collector of old 

 rubber and the proceeds devoted to the worthy work of 

 healing. Rubber is perhaps not exactly like the pro- 

 verbial kind word that "never dies." but it assuredly dies 

 hard, and is capable of a number of resuscitations before 

 its final demise. It would be interesting for some ac- 

 tively imaginative person to trace the career of a given 

 piece of rubber through its various transmutations — first 

 as an inner tube on a $5,000 Limousine, then as a rubber 

 ball which the small boy can play with, then as a piece 

 of soling for a young woman's foot-hold, and finally as 

 a rubber mat for everybody to shuffle over. 



Very few people realize to what an enormous extent 

 old rubber is re-used, and probably, as far as the gen- 

 eral consumer is concerned, it is just as well not to tell 

 him. He might get the idea that no new rubber was used 

 at all. Some people, unfortunately, already have this 

 impression, which, however, can readily be dissipated by 

 simply asking the question — What, then, becomes of the 

 50,000 tons of crude rubber used in the United States 

 each vear? 



WHERE CEYLON HAS THE ADVANTAGE OF 

 BRAZIL. 



•QRAZIL and Ceylon have one point in common — 

 rubber is an important product of each. But there 

 the similarity stops, for the great staple of Brazil is 

 coffee, and of Ceylon, tea. Both countries have been con- 

 fronted with the same danger— the overproduction of 

 their staples. Ceylon has met the situation very success- 

 fully by converting into rubber plantations much of the 

 land which formerly it was thought could not be profit- 



ably utilized except for tea. The exports of tea in 1907 

 amounted to 182,000,000 pounds, and in 1911 to 186,- 

 000,000 pounds, an increase so slight as to be negligible. 

 The price in the meantime advanced from 41'-1 cents 

 (Ceylon currency) to 45^ cents a pound. The exports 

 of rubber during those four years grew rapidly. The 

 Ceylonese are most fortunate, for as fast as their tea 

 threatens to outstrip the demand they forthwith change 

 to the production of rubber. 



But the situation in Brazil is different. Overproduc- 

 tion of coffee is not only a menace but an actuality. 

 If the Brazilians could only transform some of their 

 coffee lands into rubber plantations, the problem would 

 be solved; but unfortunately they can"t, for their rubber 

 comes from the North and their coffee from the South, 

 and they have little in common beyond being both 

 Brazilian. 



So there is where Cevlon has the advantage. 



OXE OF THE DAILY PAPERS RECENTLY PUBLISHED THE 



ST.\TEMEXT that the rubber manufacturers of Akron were 

 turning out 20,000 automobile tires each day, and added 

 that this was one-half of the product of the United States. 

 If Akron is really turning out 20,000 automobile tires 

 regularly every day and disposing of them, the situation 

 for the tire manufacturers outside of Akron is certainly 

 a hard one, because their factories must shut down forth- 

 with, for a daily output of 20,000 tires (which would ag- 

 gregate 6,000,000 tires a year) would supply the entire 

 American market. The annual consuinption of automo- 

 bile tires, including all kinds, pneumatic and solid, has 

 never >et reached 6,000,000, but it probably will dur- 

 ing the present year. However, it is hardly necessary 

 to quarrel on this issue with our contemporary. It is not 

 necessary to characterize the statement as inaccurate, but 

 only as a little premature, for undoubtedly within the 

 next two or three years Akron will be making 20,000 

 tires a day, and with plenty of work left for the other 

 manufacturers. Of course, we cannot tell yet what effect 

 Mr. Wilson's new tariff, with its reduction of duty on 

 rubber manufactures from 35 to 10 per cent., will have; 

 but in view of the fact that American manufacturers 

 have been exporting tires in greater number every year 

 until with the fiscal year ending last June the value of 

 these exports had reached $4,000,000, there seems to be 

 a comfortable assurance that our tire makers will be 

 able to take care of themselves, notwithstanding the fact 

 that the new tariff" will open the doors fairly wide to 

 foreign importations. 



