September 1, 1914.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



637 



.^um-1^^ 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO. 



No. 25 West 45th Sirtet, New York. 

 CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, Editor 



Vol. 50. 



SEPTEMBER I, 1914. 



No. 6 



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COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 

 Entered at the New York postoffice as mail matter of the second class. 



TABLE OF contents ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



THE WAR AND THE RUBBER TRADE IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



r^^EW induslries are less directly connected with the 

 ■■■ scene of the great conflict now in progress in Eu- 

 rope than tlie ruhher trade in the United .States, and yet 

 none has hecn more quickly or more widely affected. As 

 an illustration of which fact the extraordinary perform- 

 ance of the crude rubber market in the early part of Au- 

 gust might be cited. On the first day of .August Upriver 

 fine .sold at seventy cents. On the seventh day of Au- 

 gust it sold at a dollar and twenty cents — an increase 

 in six days of seventy-one per cent. On the same two 

 dates plantation first latex sold at fifty-five cents and a 

 dollar and fifteen cents — an advance in less than a week 

 of one hundred and ten per cent. The rubl)cr market 

 has seen many fluctuations but at no time hitherto has 

 there been any such rapid advance. 



The crude rubber market was temporarily almost in a 

 condition of panic and the feeling quickly communicated 

 itself to the manufacturers, a number of whom, seeing 

 the price of their necessary supplies going up with such 

 unprecedented rapidity, announced a material advance 

 in the price of maiuifactured goods. This was particu- 

 larlv true of the tire market. 



The reasoning of the rubber men, both importers and 

 manufacturers, was as follows : With only two or pos- 

 sibly three months' supplies of rubber at the factories ; 

 with not more than three or four hundred tons in the 

 hands of importers; with the sea swept clean of com- 

 merce ; witii the channels of receiving rubber effectually 

 slopped and all the avenues of accustomed exchange 

 closed and barred : with contracts to be filled and 

 scant material to fill them with, of what avail was it that 

 the accustomed supply of Amazon rubber was on the 

 docks at Para ready for shipment and an ever increasing 

 supply of plantation rubber waiting at Singapore to em- 

 bark for .\merican markets? In the state of the trade's 

 mind at that time these southern and eastern supplies 

 might as well have been in the moon. The situation 

 looked desperate. 



I'ut after two weeks the feeling of alarm generally sub- 

 sided. It was discovered that all commerce was not to 

 be driven frum the seas and that, barring German boats, 

 the bottoms of other nations, and particularly of all neu- 

 tral nations, would soon be able to ply their accustomed 

 course. Congress rushed in at once to remove the re- 

 strictions that had for years so greatly fettered our 

 merchant marine, and some shipping lines, including 

 those to South America, promised an immediate addition 

 to their number of ships; so that communication with 

 Para appeared likely soon to resume its normal condi- 

 tion and, with the overwhelming advantage of the Allies 

 on the seas, the likelihood of open water from Singapore 

 to Liverpool and New York seemed, if not imminent, at 

 least a probability of the early future. 



In addition, it became more obvious with each day of 

 fighting that it would be a long time before the P3uro- 

 pean market could use more than a fraction of the rubber 

 that had hitherto been delivered at its factories — which 

 would mean all the greater supply for the manufacturers 

 of the United States. 



^\'hen these saner aspects of the situation began to 

 appear prices receded, until during the latter part of 

 August the quotations, both for Para and eastern rubber, 

 had lost over two-thirds of their meteoric rise during the 

 first week of the month. Many manufacturers also con- 

 cluded that it would be unnecessar)' for them, at present 

 at least, to demand an advance in their prices, and where 

 their goods had been marked up during the first week of 

 the month in several cases they were marked back again 

 during the third week. 



It cannot be said that the present situation is normal, 

 for it is far from it ; but it is sane and reasonable. The 

 aspect of panic has been entirely eliminated. 



