February 1, 1914.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



223 



There is nK-ntidiied ini aiidthcr page of this issue, in 

 some detail, the liandsome silver cup, some 50 inches 

 in height, offered by The India Rubber Wokld for 

 the best process of extracting latex from the wild 

 Hevea, Castilloa or Maiiiliot tree. This will interest 

 most American readers chiefly as a proof that this 

 publication is tr3-ing to encourage the gatherer of wild 

 rubber to do his work intelligently and without waste ; 

 but the other three prizes which have been mentioned 

 above — two for new ideas in the use of jilantatii in rnl)- 

 ber and the other for the best plan for factory equip- 

 ment — ought certainly to touch a responsive chord in 

 some of the American readers of this journal ; and 

 with our recognized iiucntive faculty there seems to 

 be no reason why one. if not all, of these three awards 

 should not, as they leave London (assuming that they 

 do leave) take their way hitherward across the 

 Atlantic. 



Competitors for these awards must sulMiiil their 

 offerings by May, or not later than June. Those who 

 are interested in this subject should send to Mr. A. 

 Staines Manders, manager of the exposition, at 75, 

 Chancery Lane, London, W. C, for a pamphlet giving 

 all the conditions of the contest. 



GETTING ACCURATE RUBBER STATISTICS. 



' I 'HE Rubber Club of America, in pursuance of its 

 ■*• policy of making itself generally useful to its 

 members and beyond its members to the industry at 

 large, has recently sent, through its secretary, a circu- 

 lar to the rubber manufacturers of the country asking 

 them for statistical information covering their particu- 

 lar plant and its product. 



Everyone is familiar with tiie classification of in- 

 veracity made by some noted statistician, who divided 



all lies into "plain lies. lies and statistics." The germ 



of truth that lies under this rather harsh characteriza- 

 tion is due, undoubtedly, to the fact that accurate sta- 

 tistics have been very hard to get in the past. It is 

 quite natural that the manufacturer should hesitate to 

 turn his business inside out to the inspection of the 

 government investigator, and of course where statis- 

 tics are inaccurate at their origin they are not likely 

 to gain in accuracy as they proceed. But it is of great 

 value to any industry to have its figures accurate!}' 

 compiled. These figures show its condition. And if 

 they bespeak a healthy condition there is cause for 

 general congratulation; while if they indicate an un- 



hcalth}' ctinditiun (ili\i(ju>l\' ilic thing to d(.) is to dis- 

 cover the cause and to a])ply the remedy. 



The statistics asked for by the Rubber Club are not 

 to be signed by the manufacturer who supplies them, 

 his identity l)eing indiciled onlv l)y the number at- 

 tached to the blank which he fills out ; and this number 

 the secretary agrees to keep in strict confidence. So that 

 those who contribute to this information can feel fully 

 assured that while they are rendering assistance to the 

 trade at large they are doing it at no personal hazard. 



CLEARLY LIBELOUS. 



A CONNECTICUT journal, evidently with a wasp- 

 •**■ ish turn of mind, contained in a recent issue the 

 following brief paragraph : 



"Now that cheaper rubber is promised, it is believed 

 the time will again come when a pair of rubber overshoes 

 will wear as much as a fortnight.'' 



This is a most unwarrantable slur. It is clearly inflam- 

 matory and ought to be actionable. The average over- 

 shoe as made today will survive many a fortnight. To 

 be sure, if a man were competing in the Weston class 

 and trying to do 50 miles a day over rough roads, and 

 should encounter a continuous rainstorm, compelling 

 him to wear rubbers from morn till night, a fortnight's 

 service might mean many hundied miles, and at the end 

 of such a jaunt a pair of rulibers might very properly 

 petition to be retired. But with the average citizen, any 

 pair of rubbers made by a reputable manufacturer will 

 take him through an ordinary season, and sometimes 

 much longer. The writer of this paragraph looks back 

 with unalloved admiration on a certain pair of rubbers, 

 technically known as .sandals, bearing the trade mark of 

 an old established New Jersey company, which he pur- 

 chased several years ago. He wore those rubbers, off 

 and on (on only when the elements required it, of course) 

 for some three years, and then, having occasion to go to 

 a western city, took them with him. After a day of 

 muddy walking he left those devoted rubbers on the 

 porch over night, and in the morning they had disap- 

 peared — feloniously abstracted — to the owner's abiding 

 regret. 



Just how long the discriminating person who carried 

 those rubbers away continued to wear them can never be 

 known, but from their last appearance, after having been 

 worn nearly lour years — a presidential term — they 

 seemed to be good for a still further period of service. 

 In the li.ght of this experience, the slur of the Connecticut 

 journal on the humble golosh .seems most undeserved. 



