December i, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



67 



The fact that the pneumatic tire has been officially recog- 

 nized as just having come "of age" — and before the advent of 

 the pneumatic the now great automobile industry was non-ex- 

 istent — may very properly be regarded as encouraging to the 

 latter day pioneers in aviation, a field in which rubber is hardly 

 less important than in motoring. 



Just as "the race is not always to the swiftest," the 

 trade may come to realize that the best rubber may, for cer- 

 tain purposes, have to give way to inferior brands. Not that 

 balata gum is an inferior material, when properly known, but 

 for half a century it could not hope to compete with fine Para. 



"Brazil for the Brazilians'' seems to be the motto of the 

 people who have developed the rubber trade of the Amazon 

 regions. Seeing how generally outsiders have failed to exploit 

 rubber there successfully, it is hard to see how anybody can 

 object to the motto. 



It may be, after all, that the frenzy of the Britishers 

 to put capital into any sort of company that has rubber planting 

 as its avowed object, is not less well based than the American 

 susceptibility to invest in anything which may be advertised 

 as a gold mine. 



The prominence of heels in the British rubber trade sug- 

 gested a brief article on our transatlantic brethren being "well 

 heeled" — an expression we have heard somewhere — but the office 

 dictionary fails to supply a satisfactory definition for this term, 

 and the article will have to be postponed. 



It seems that the Congo natives are to be given the choice, 

 ultimately, between paying their taxes in money or in rubber. 

 Since they have complained so strenuously against having to 

 go to the "bush" to collect rubber for this purpose, they probably 

 have cash hidden in their stockings with which to meet the claims 

 of the tax gatherer. 



THE AMAZON RUBBER SYNDICATE. 



' I '0 the Editor of The India Rubber World: On September 

 •* 28 there was held in Para the first meeting, after their in- 

 stallation, of the associates of the Rubber Syndicate "A Produc- 

 tora Amazonica" [see The India Rubber World, September 1, 

 1909 — page 422]. The firms represented were: Mello & Co., 

 Freire Castro & Co., Rocha, Silva & Co., Costa & Menezes, 

 Velhote, Silva & Co., Alves-Braga Rubber and Trading Co., 

 Barboza & Tocantins, Cerqueira Lima & Co., B. F. da Silva, 

 Silva, Bastos & Co., A. Motta & Co., and Silva, Ribeiro & Cie. 



The president of the board of directors, Barao de Souza 

 Lages. of the firm Mello & Co., presented a motion that the 

 syndicate should immediately go into operation, notwithstanding 

 the fact that the government has not yet granted them the 

 privilege of the 4 per cent, duty rebate on the export of rubber. 



Mr. Simao da Costa, representing The Alves, Braga company, 

 in a well elaborated speech, tried to encourage his associates 

 by explaining that according to the federal and state laws 

 everybody concerned in the rubber industry can belong to the 

 organized syndicate — i. c, not only the proprietors of rubber 

 estates and the aviadores, but even the brokers, salesmen, or 

 clerks of the firms which handle rubber. He gave a description 

 of the great services which a syndicate organized in such a 

 manner can render to its associates. 



To formulate the rules of the syndicate, Messrs. Simao da 

 Costa, Jose da Rocha Fernandes, and Barreiros Lima were 

 elected. 



This report corroborates the article of Gustav Heinsohn, pub- 

 lished in The India Rubber World [July 1, 1909], stating that 

 the Para government had not passed the duty reduction law 



with the view of excluding the foreign exporters from the 

 Amazon market, but only to encourage the producer to export 

 rubber directly to the foreign buyer. 



The fact that many of the associates of the syndicate are only 

 wholesale provision merchants and consequently cannot comply 

 with the established law of being direct producers of rubber, 

 excludes the syndicate, even if all of them should be Brazilian 

 firms, from the right of exporting the rubber at a lower rate 

 than is exacted under the general rule. From this is evident 

 that the Para government is entirely reliable. If any organi- 

 zation should get the benefits of this duty reduction law, it will 

 only be one of direct producers, and there will be no speculation. 



s. CLARK. 



A GERMAN VIEW OF OUR "OPTIMISM." 



[FROM THE "GUMMI-ZEITUNG," BERLIN.] 



IN an article on the business situation on the other side of the 

 ocean, The India Rubber World, of New York, says, among 

 other things : 



The country is prosperous again. The country has been prosperous for 

 a long time. This country cannot be otherwise than prosperous, with so 

 many millions of honest and intelligent people working constantly to im- 

 prove their condition — materially and morally. Would it not be a great 

 blow to civilization if such concentrated effort by so many millions did not yield 

 favorable results? . . . Business conditions in America, measured by every 

 recognized standard, show an improvement over what has prevailed for a 

 year or more past. In other words, business is approaching the normal 

 American condition — that of continued improvement, keeping pace with the 

 constant growth of a population that has a buying capacity not equaled in 

 any other country, in any age. 



Would it not be well for us here in Germany to become im- 

 bued with some of the healthy optimism shown in this conception 

 of the situation? We assuredly are not unwarranted in doing 

 so, for all indications are scarcely less favorable for us, and con- 

 ditions are at once immeasurably improved when 'belief in an 

 upward trend becomes prevalent. 



RUBBER IN THE NEWSPAPERS. 



' I 'HE able Minneapolis (Michigan) Journal has discovered 

 *■ why some producers of rubber tires can sell for less money 

 than others, the reason being that — 



"The larger manufacturers were able to buy thousands of 

 dollars of crude rubber when prices were lower. The smaller 

 manufacturers, however, could not afford to buy enough rubber 

 to stock their gum cellars, so they have been forced to make 

 prices from 5 to 15 per cent, higher than more popular and older 

 competitors." 



Is rubber really scarce? The able Boston American says: 

 "In the forepart of August Elmer L. Corthell, direct from Pari, 

 said that there was an abundance of crude rubber in that district, 

 but that the producers of it were in despair at the prices offered 

 by foreign buyers. The people were told by agents from this 

 country that the panic here had so restricted the use of automo- 

 biles that there was scarcely any demand for rubber tires." 



How does the able Elizabeth (New Jersey) Journal happen 

 to know this? "Rubber for overshoes is very scarce for various 

 reasons. - - - For this reason a pair of rubbers will cost about 

 the same this year, but their quality will not be as good." 



Under the heading "Boat Mill to Shut Down" the Boston 

 Post of November 5 reported, under a Millville date line : "The 

 Lhnited States Rubber Co.'s boat mill here will be shut down 

 next week for an indefinite period for the purpose of curtailing 

 production." Didn't know before that the company named were 

 making too many boats. 



Rubber Contracted by Heat. — Rubber is strongly con- 

 tracted by heating, and Professor S. P. Thompson suggests 

 that it would be possible to construct a heat engine to be 

 driven by the contraction of rubber instead of by the ex- 

 pansion of water or air. 



