September i, igio.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



409 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 

 EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 

 ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 42. 



SEPTEMBER 1, 1910. 



No. 6. 



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COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY 



TEE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE READING MATTER. 



A QUESTION OF PRICES. 



THE fact that crude rubber has been sold lately at 

 much lower prices than manufacturers were ob- 

 liged to pay a few months ago has revived the question 

 that follows every decline in rubber — why don't the 

 prices of their products come down in proportion? We 

 have just seen this question discussed at length in an 

 important daily trade paper, but with the result of 

 its missing the point entirely. 



If a manufacturer should be stocked up with rubber 

 bought at $3 a pound he would feel obliged to realize a 

 corresponding price for his goods made from that ma- 

 terial, no matter how far the price of the crude might 

 fall meanwhile. Again, if a manufacturer is contract- 

 ing to-day for rubber at a reduced price, it may be 

 weeks or months before it reaches the ultimate con- 

 sumer, and it is the ultimate consumer who pays the 

 price. 



The rubber footwear makers are busy to-day turn- 

 ing out boots and shoes for sale to the public next 

 winter, on contracts with jobbers booked as long ago 

 as April. Already the prices of raw material have 

 . fluctuated this season to a most unusual degree, and 

 ~ more fluctuations may happen before winter again 

 drives people to buy overshoes. But the manufac- 

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Hirers must fix prices before the goods are made, and 

 this must be done on the theory of averages for the 

 year that will yield a profit. Like conditions obtain in 

 the matter of automobile tires, garden hose, or babies' 

 rattles. 



Unlike many articles of commerce, rubber goods 

 are not sold at a base price subject to fluctuations in 

 unmanufactured or crude materials; hence the im- 

 practicability of changing quotations with every rise 

 and fall in the raw product. 



CRUDE RUBBER POLITICS. 



AT the Philadelphia Centennial International Exhi- 

 bition, in 1876, among the exhibits from Mexico 

 was a specimen of crude rubber obtained from a shrub 

 not known before to yield this substance. Then as 

 now rubber was regarded by manufacturers as too 

 high priced, and every possible new source was re- 

 garded with interest. The Mexican shrub came in 

 for much notice but, although recognized experts 

 worked hard over the problem, it was practically 

 thirty years before commercial results were obtained, 

 through the marketing of the grade of rubber known 

 everywhere to-day as "Guayule." 



The introduction of guayule rubber has been of 

 inestimable benefit to the world. Without it the price 

 of other rubbers doubtless would have attained a much 

 higher level ; in other words, rubber goods would have 

 cost the consumers very much more. The relative im- 

 portance of guayule is indicated by the fact that of the 

 total imports of crude rubber into the United States 

 during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910, of 101,044,- 

 681 pounds, no less than 23,486,384 pounds came from 

 Mexico, and at least 22,000,000 pounds of this was 

 guayule. This is, roundly. 22 per cent, of the whole. 



It would seem reasonable that those who developed 

 this important new supply of rubber should be congrat- 

 ulated upon conferring so important a benefit upon 

 the public, not alone of the United States but wherever 

 rubber goods are used. It is true that the pioneer 

 experimenters and the investors in guayule rubber 

 worked for their individual profit, but so do the 

 workers in so many fields who in Europe are rewarded 

 with orders of merit by their sovereigns. 



In the case of the founders of the guayule interest 

 in America, however, we see professional politicians 

 trying to make capital out of the fact that a United 

 States senator has invested some of his money in rub- 

 ber, the implication being that his official position has 

 been used for his individual profit and against the 

 public welfare. And newspapers of influence have 

 taken the matter up at length, indulging in such pub- 

 lic insinuations as are calculated to sweep away the 

 reputation of even the strongest of men. 



We have no brief for the defense of anybody en- 

 gaged in the preparation and sale of guayule or any 

 other rubber. Many persons engaged in this business 



