344 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April 1. 1914. 



evil day. Indeed, if you will look back through the files of our 

 newspapers and read many of our governmental reports you will 

 find the danger and remedy explicitly set forth. But in a new 

 country, who believes in conservation? Who |)lans for the 

 future? Did the North .-Xniericans save or destroy their wonder- 

 ful pine forests? Did your wheat farmers conserve the soil? 

 Is not the farming country of New England stripped of its 

 fertility ? The vastness of your resources, the influx of laborers 

 and your marvelous industrial development are all that have pre- 

 vented you from being just as we are. 



"Great etTorts were made by us — greater than the world know s 

 — to prepare for the future. The efforts, however, apiiear to be 

 in vain. We had the desire, the knowledge, but neither capital 

 nor labor to carry out our plans. I acknow-ledge that our 

 cities should have been made as safe as the Americans made 

 Havana; that our experiment-station and plantations should lie 

 as healthy as the Panama Canal Zone. But what does the 

 world know of the demands of the federal government for its 

 share of the rubber millions? Our most capable and enterprising 

 business men were British. .American, German and Portuguese, 

 who were with us only to gain a competence and then go home. 

 None thought of Para or Manaos as a home; therefore they 

 were not interested in the future — in our future. 



"Concessions! yes, they took them greedily and we paid 

 "through the nose.' 



"We should have colonized and we did institute many efforts 

 to that end. In Sao Paulo we were successful, but to get settlers 

 for the rich lands bordering the .Amazon we signally failed. 



"Do you recall some five years ago sending me a man who 

 represented a great syndicate that wished to colonize a huge 

 tract up the river and that had millions liack of it? I wrote 



Mamiore railroad, if i)ut into rubber plantations down the river, 

 and that the cost of our Port of Para improvements, if invested 

 in the same manner, would have been our salvation. But no 

 foreign bonds could be floated for planting rubber, particularly 

 when we were getting constantly increasing quantities of rub- 

 ber from up the .\mazon. Every attempt to plant on any 



Ro.Miw.vY TO Flo.vtixg Docks. 



considerable scale was either frowned upon or reported against. 

 We sent commissioners abroad and pigeon-holed their reports. 



"When the English bought a rubber plantation at Santarem,. 

 they should have at once been granted a bonus, medical attend- 

 ance and if necessary supplied with laborers and the export duty 

 thrown off. 



"When Cnniniandante Benedict came to us year after year. 



Courtesy of In- 



I iiion of America 



A I'ART uv TiiE Dock Sv.--rEM, 1'aka. 



you guardedly that nothing could be done, for you to advise your 

 friends that the project was dangerous. I tell you now that 

 government officials in their folly, scented in it a revolutionary 

 plot, and those who would have helped us were given the cold 

 shoulder. 

 "We can see today that the money spent on the Madeira- 



genial, friendly, alive with wise suggestions, ready to foster 

 great enterprises, we ought to have helped all that we could. 

 His wireless plant between Para and Manaos, his rubber plan- 

 tation, all should have had the fullest help, as they were pioneer 

 enterprises whicli, once successful, would inevitably bring in 

 others. 



