234 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



I Vprtl i, 1910. 



terest as did the rubber congress in Manaos. Not only the 

 Commercial Association, composed of the leading merchants in 

 the town, and the handlers of largely more than half the "Para" 

 rubber of commerce were interested, but all the rubber pro- 

 ducers in the area of which Manaos is the center, general mer- 

 chants, the whole body of the governmental authorities, bankers, 

 transportation companies — in fact every intelligent element in 

 Amazonia was represented at the sessions of the Congress by 

 interested, forceful, influential men, intent upon setting on foot 

 a movement for a revolution of business conditions. 



A new regime this certainly is. And the old regime began not 

 so long ago. There are men living to-day who remember when 

 the price of Para rubber was less than a shilling a pound, and 

 when the output was insignificant. A recent important work on 

 the botany of the Amazon region was brought out by a gentleman 

 who studied the neighborhood of Manaos before the existence of 

 rubber thereabout had ever been known, even to the natives. 

 This journal in a recent issue reported the death of an American 

 naval officer who was one of the first white men to visit the same 



rubber was held, this being housed in the public library, also an 

 attractive building. The newspapers reported the proceed- 

 ings of the Congress very fully, going to the extent of printing 

 the names daily not only of those participating, but of the gen- 

 eral audience, which embraced representatives of the best society 

 of the city. At the evening sessions admission was to be had 

 only by ticket. 



THE INCEPTION OF THE CONGRESS. 



The first announcement regarding an industrial congress to be 

 held at Manaos, representative of the best interests of the 

 Amazon region, was contained in a circular from the Associacao 

 Commercial do Amazonas, under date of July 22, 1909. The 

 general scope of the proposed congress was soon outlined, and 

 a more or less detailed program of topics to be discussed, of 

 which a summary was given in The India Rubber World, Octo- 

 ber I, 1909 (page 7). The Commercial Association at Manaos 

 has done much for the development of commerce in Amazonia, 

 which is an earnest cf what may be done in bringing about a 



Colonel Antonio Clemente Bittencourt. 



[Governor of Amazonas. 3 



i iii, his visit having occurred before the then small Indian 

 trading village on the Negro had taken the name of Manaos. 

 This also was before the discovery of rubber up the Amazon. 



Manaos to-day has many of the characteristics of modern cities 

 elsewhere — with fine buildings, electric lights, electric street rail- 

 ways, waterworks, and improved docks, accommodating ocean 

 steamers which arrive frequently and regularly from New York 

 and several European ports. It has banks lik> wise, four daily 

 newspapers, and telegraphic communication with the world. How 

 far away from "the world" it is, however, is indicated by the 

 fact that The India Rubber World's representative had to leave 

 New York nearly two months before the sitting of the Congress, 

 in order to be on time there; no letters mailed to him from the 

 office reached him before the Congress sat, and the only medium 

 of communication with him was the telegraph, at the rate of 

 $1.60 a word. 



The visitors to Manaos on the occasion of the Congress were 

 most hospitably received in official and commercial circles, and 

 by the people in general. The sittings of the Congress were held 

 in the beautiful State Theater, of which a view is given in this 

 paper. 



In connection with the rubber congress an exhibition of crude 



Senhor Waldemar Scholz. 

 [President Manaos Commercial Association.] 



better development of the "extractive industry," this being the 

 term applied on the Amazon to the production of rubber. The 

 president of the Manaos association, Senhor Wildemar Scholz, 

 long has been identified in an important way with the rubber 

 trade, particularly on the upper Amazon. 



It will be remembered that when the International Rubber 

 and Allied Trades Exhibition was held in London, in September, 

 1908, the federal government of Brazil neglected to privide for 

 an adequate representation of that country. The state of Para 

 itself was represented only by exhibits arranged by individual 

 members of the rubber trade. What saved the day for Brazil 

 was the interest taken in the matter by the Commercial Asso- 

 ciation at Manaos, with the support of the Amazonas state 

 government, with the result that the Amazon section was one 

 of the most interesting at Olympia. [See The India Rubber 

 World, October 1, 1908 — page 40.] The Amazonas commissioner 

 was Mr. N. H. Witt, the former head of and still a partner in 

 the Manaos firm of Scholz. It was to be expected that, under 

 such auspices, the Manaos Congress would prove a success. 

 Practically all Manaos took a live interest in preparing for the 

 Congress. Now that it is over and the work of a week, and 

 that too during the busy season, can be critically surveyed, it 



