August i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



377 



Do not the policemen on the Brooklyn bridge desire to dis- 

 cuss the views of a canary bird regarding political economy? 



We trow not. 



But all the theses above outlined are of more importance, 

 and more practical, than the editorials from several hundred 

 daily newspapers that have reached the office of this journal, 

 based upon a recent public address by a United States senator 

 on the subject of rubber and the tariff.' This subject is treated 

 more fully on another page of this issue. 



We have not read in any newspaper thus far that the recent 

 prize fight at Reno was won by Joan of Arc, or that Pope 

 Gregory IV has been elected queen of New York city, or that 

 the Malays have monopolized all the honey bees at the North 

 pole. 



Yet such statements would be as rational as stacks of news- 

 paper clippings — and clippings from daily journals of the high- 

 est standing — which The India Rubber World files, from motives 

 of curiosity, under the heading "Xonsense About the Rubber 

 Trust." 



Why do newspapers otherwise apparently sane persistently 

 misrepresent industrial conditions all the while? What could 

 be more imbecile than to assert that the high prices of crude 

 rubber are fixed by the largest purchaser of this material, as 

 is done so frequently" Or that the guayule rubber business 

 depends upon the American tariff, as Senator Bristow thinks, 

 and so many great newspapers assume to be true, without taking 

 the trouble to learn the truth? 



Would the editor of one of these papers accept any excuse 

 from a subordinate who misstated by a fraction the standing 

 of an individual baseball player in one of the "leagues?" 



SYNTHETIC RUBBER RESEARCH. 



'•SIC UTERE TUO," ETC. 



So far the United States has made no attempt to regulate the 

 Rubber Trust The World (New York), July 26, page 9. 



Cl'CH failure on the part of Uncle Sam may have been due to 

 k "' his inability to discover the said "trust." Did not the 

 United States Industrial Commission, acting by direction of the 

 Congress, in 1901, in its fine-tooth-comb investigation of "Trusts 

 and Industrial Combinations — General and Miscellaneous Prob- 

 lems," try its utmost to find the "rubber trust?" So far as is 

 apparent from the voluminous reports of the Commission, it 

 succeeded only in finding Mr. Flint; and of course no mere gov- 

 ernment would attempt to regulate any man so versatile in busi- 

 ness, especially in view of the difficulty of discovering whether 

 he was the rubber trust or the bobbin trust or the chicle trust 

 or the starch, etc. 



But what is more to the point. Didn't The World itself awake 

 in a printers' devil of a light one night in April, 1893, after seeing 

 "The Rubber Trust" — we believe it was "a monster of at least 

 two heads, clearly defined and most forbidding of aspect" — and 

 declare that "now is the time to smash it?" Whatever its editor 

 may have done thereafter, outsiders considered that The World 

 was attempting to regulate the rubber trust. But from that 

 time until now this ablest American newspaper has not so de- 

 fined the "rubber trust" as to make it visible to a man without 

 smoked glasses. So why call upon the United States to reg- 

 ulate it? 



Who doubts that the investigation of trusts in New York state, 

 in 1886, fathered by the able Senator Lexow, was mothered by 

 the virtuous World? Much of that long, drawn-out investiga- 

 tion was devoted to trying to find the "rubber trust," and the 

 Senator perhaps might have discovered the monster, but for the 

 fact that the chief witness on the stand refused for so many 

 days to answer any question in a way to corroborate The World's 

 assertions. 



And now The World is at it again. 



But what Senator Lexow said in his report to the legislature 

 was Sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas. Could "the United 

 States" do better now? 



r\ESPITE the failure thus far to produce synthetic rubber — 

 *-"^ at least commercially — a new undertaking in this field is 

 reported from England. The Research Syndicate, Limited, 

 registered May 11, 1910, with a capital stated of £12,500, has 

 for its purpose the provision of funds for carrying out research 

 work connected' with the manufacture of wholly or partially syn- 

 thetic or artificial caoutchouc, and similar substances, and also 

 for the production of such substances from natural raw mate- 

 rials. It is of interest to quote as the basis for the work of 

 the new syndicate the following paragraph from the prospectus : 



"Applications have been made for letters patent with ref- 

 erence to certain processes, which it is hoped will lead up to the 

 synthetic manufacture of the above substances (caoutchouc, 

 gutta-percha, etc.), but it is in no way guaranteed that such 

 results will follow or that the research work which is to be 

 carried on at the company's expense will result in the discovery 

 of processes for manufacturing by artificial means the above sub- 

 stances or that if such processes are discovered they will be of 

 any commercial value." 



These applications for letters patent are fifteen in number, 

 ranging in date from December 9, 1909, to the present, and 

 being in the names of Francis Edward Matthews, PH.D., F. 1. c, 

 Edward Halford Strange, M.s.C, and William Henry Perkin. 

 PH.D., F. R. s. Arrangement is made for the use of works at Rain- 

 ham, Essex, owned by the Industrial Chemical Co., Limited. 



THE GERMAN "SYNTHETIC RUBBER." 



I7DWARD M'BEAX, of Glasgow, an important manufacturer 

 *— i of waterproof fabrics who recently was in the United States 

 on business, in a recent interview in Oil, Drug and Paint Re- 

 porter (New York), said that he did not think the production of 

 artificial rubber at all likely. He said : 



"You know that that big German company which produces 

 such quantities of valuable drugs and dyes from coal tar 

 [Farbenfabriken of Elherfeld Co.; see The India Rubber World. 

 July 1, 1910 — page 356]. has produced a substance in its labor- 

 atories known as synthetic rubber. It is a sort of built-up 

 material, and they say it has the qualities of the genuine, but 

 I do not think it is more than a curiosity. 



"Manufactured with such difficulty, it cannot be of commercial 

 use. These rubbers have a certain amount of elasticity, but they 

 have no cohesion. You can tell them at once; they have a dead 

 feeling, and will stretch, but will not spring back like a piece 

 of the pure material. A lot of this shoddy stuff is made from 

 second hand rubber, ground up. Linseed oil is a very popular 

 adulterant. It is a great absorber of moisture. For instance, 

 if you spread some of it on a piece of glass where it cannot 

 be soaked up you will find upon its drying that the residue has 

 increased 6 per cent, in weight simply from the water it has 

 absorbed from the oil. Rubber with oil in it is poor, spongy 

 stuff." 



THE NEW CONGO REGIME. 



A CONFLICT between Belgium and the Rubber Concession- 

 aire companies threatens to break out on the Congo. A 

 sort of free trade will be introduced into Kasai district, begin- 

 ning July I. This is an outgrowth of the reform propositions 

 which have been recently adopted. The Kasai company, which 

 represents the rubber business in this district, made the following 

 propositions to the Belgian government : The state to turn over 

 to the company all the shares of the company which it retains 

 in its possession (50 per cent.), whereupon the company is to 

 pay over to the state the half of its capital, which amounts to 

 8,000,000 [=about 9,500,000 francs]. 



