April i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



231 



office of the New York Herald — not the Tribune. When 

 ever a Herald young man felt disposed to dream rather 

 than work as a means of gaining access to the cashier's 

 window, he prepared an interview with Collis P. Hunt- 

 ington on the duty of young men of business instincts to 

 go in for African rubber. 



One day The India Rubber World decided to inter- 

 view the railway king regarding his reported interest in 

 rubber gathering on the Congo. And the result appeared 

 in the issue of this journal of March 10, 1895 (page 

 176): 



"I have none," he said. "I know nothing of the interview with me in 

 the Herald. I never could have said anything of the kind. I know so 

 little about rubber in Africa that I would no sooner advise any one to in- 

 vest money in the industry than I would advise him to make investments in 

 the moon.'* 



What keeps the Huntington rubber fiction alive is most 

 incomprehensible. Cold facts about rubber today are apt 

 to be forgotten tomorrow even by the people who have 

 most reason to keep informed on the subject. Perhaps 

 the best explanation is to be found in the expression by 

 Barnum, the one-time great circus proprietor, who ex- 

 cused certain palpably fraudulent exhibits on the ground 

 that "the people like to be humbugged." 



There can be no doubt that many of the excited in- 

 vestors in so-called rubber planting propositions today 

 are as little informed regarding rubber as Mr. Huntington 

 admitted himself to be. Moreover, they probably would 

 make "investments in the moon" just as readily, if an at- 

 tractive moon prospectus appeared. And if they lose, 

 probably no complaint will be heard — if it be true that 

 "the people like to be humbugged." 



AN "OFFICIAL ORGAN.' 



"THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD," the official organ of the rubber 

 trade — The New York Herald, March 3. 



OUR first thought on reading this complimentary 

 mention in the columns of an esteemed contem- 

 porary was that it was not exactly correct. This paper 

 has not been elected or appointed to any specially de- 

 fined post by any representative body of the rubber trade. 

 But on second thought reference was made to "The Cen- 

 tury Dictionary," where, on page 4092, one of the defini- 

 tions of the word "official" reads : 



Performing duties or offices; rendering useful service. 



In this sense we feel complimented, not only by The 

 New York Herald, but by the whole rubber trade — on 

 every continent — which, by its continued generous sup- 

 port, indicates that the paper, during more than twenty 

 years, has been "rendering useful service" to its patrons. 



HOW TO CHECK THE RUBBER BOOM. 



T"0 the Editor of The India Rubber World: Our crude 

 rubber market of late has continued to rise, and the leading 

 papers in London, even those of the most conservative nature, 

 affirm that nothing equal to the present boom has ever taken 

 place on the Stock Exchange. Rubber seems to have taken the 



lead of everything else, dethroning even gold mining specula- 

 tions of the wildest form ever recorded in the annals of the 

 Exchange. The oldest and best informed authorities affirm 

 that there is no sign of an early abatement of the present fever. 

 The prices of the crude rubber also seem to offer a more pre- 

 ponderant inclination to rise than otherwise, latest quotations 

 at Liverpool being 10s. 8d. for April-May delivery. This means 

 we shall have high prices for the rest of the year, if consumption 

 keeps the present level. 



What is now taking place confirms my opinion that the time 

 has come when leading manufacturers must make an effort to 

 maintain the necessary equilibrium in the primary markets, so 

 as to check the terrible oscillations which speculation will be 

 capable of producing forever, unless hindered by powerful and 

 intelligently handled combinations. It is true these oscillations 

 are likely to give us a fortune this year, just by our pluck in 

 holding back the sale of our stock, and I should not quarrel 

 with any state of affairs which benefits our concern to the tune 

 of so much more over and above our ordinary profits, than if 

 the market was steady. But from a purely economic stand- 

 point, and viewing the consolidation of the automobile trade 

 and every commodity in which rubber enters largely — in a 

 word, as a matter of protection to both producer and manu- 

 facturer — I would rather see the market weeded of this ob- 

 noxious speculative element, with its kaleidoscopic surprises 

 that are seldom advantageous to either producer or manu- 

 facturer, and mostly injurious to both, simultaneously. 



Of course, I am not so optimistic as to believe that speculation 

 can ever be totally eliminated, but I venture to affirm that it 

 can be kept within such circumscribed bounds that speculators 

 will seek other spheres of action. I believe that the violent and 

 brusque oscillations that we are witnessing can be checked, with 

 a steady price ruling for every season. Look at what has been 

 achieved by the Brazilian government in regard to the prices of 

 exchange. No one thinks of speculating on it nowadays, be- 

 cause the margin is not sufficiently tempting. Mind that this 

 device grew out of a simple conversation of mine with a states- 

 man who had the courage of putting it in practice, and its succes* 

 has brought the nation millions in favor of legitimate commerce 

 that would have otherwise gone towards swelling Stock Ex- 

 change speculators. 



The next point which, to my mind, deserves the immediate 

 attention of the Captains of the Rubber Industry, should be the 

 aim at getting nearer mother earth than they are at present. 

 When you glance at the list of successes which have followed 

 the control of crude materials from their primary sources, by 

 manufacturers, you cannot help recognizing that the principle 

 which has given such marvelous results must be economically 

 sound. Take Pears, for instance, who have owned their cocoa- 

 nut estates, from which they have derived the oil which has made 

 their soap famous. The greatest chocolate manufacturers of 

 the world — such as Epps, Fry's, Cadbury, Menier, Van Hooten, 

 and Suchard, all own their cocoa estates. Steel corporations 

 mine their own ore and handle it right through until it gets to 

 the consumers' hands. 



While mi this point I may mention that the government of 

 this country is offering special advantages to any who may build 

 factories for rubber goods, and I think Brazil as good a field as 

 any in South America, from any standpoint you wish to con- 

 sider the country as a whole. And it behooves the American 

 manufacturer to take in the situation and improve the oppor- 

 tunity for developing an industry that only needs to be started 

 to be a huge success. a paraense. 



Para, Brazil. March t6, iqio. 



Mr. T. C. Redfern, managing director of Redfern's Rubber 

 Works, Limited, of Hyde, near Manchester, England, was a 

 recent visitor to the United States and Canada when he favored 

 The India Rubber World offices with a call. 



