Nfc-.v , 



December 1. 1920 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



153 





Reg. United States Pat. Off. Reg. United Kingdom. 



Published on the 1st of each month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 25 West 45th Street, New York. 



Telephone — Bryant 2576. 

 CABLE ADDKESS: IRWORLD, NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, F.R.G.S., Editor 



Vol. 63 



DECEMBER I. 1920 



No. 3 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING 



AN INTERNATIONAL RUBBER ASSOCIATION 



Tuic SLtiGKSTKi.N is not new but .suggestions of any 

 sort rarely are new. That it comes now when ahiiost 

 •everythin.^ in the line of reconstruction that can be put 

 in effect is beins;;- tried or at least considered, is signifi- 

 cant. The machinery for such an association lies in the 

 great rubber manufacturing and planting associations 

 that are already in existence here and abroad. The ease 

 with which delegates could assemble at the next rubber 

 ■exhibition and make a beginning is most evident. As a 

 stabilizer, an educator and perhaps a money saver, it 

 could be made exceedingly valuable. In one particular 

 it might do a great good, and that is by stopping piracy 

 of names, trade marks and patents. 



Of course when one ponders the subject, it takes on 

 qualities that suggest a League of Nations and the in- 

 evitable "14 points" obtrude themselves. Nevertheless. 

 Article X might be omitted and serenity assured. The 

 association might be a great help to the trade. Its rulings 

 and laws would possess only a moral force. It would 

 be a minor Hague tribunal without teeth, but with wise 

 men at its head and a policy of fair dealing, together 



with statistical and newspaper sense, much good could 

 be accomplished. 



WHEN RUBBER GROWS OLD 



AKE.M.VUK often heard among the uninformed is that 

 the general average of quality in nibber goods is 

 lower than formerly. Air. Average Buyer, who is often 

 unwilling to buy high-grade rubber goods, generally gets 

 a second rate, poorly compounded article, takes no care 

 of it, when he does not actually abyse it, and when it 

 gives out sooner than he expected, scores the whole in- 

 dustry with the remark that "they are not making rubber 

 goods as good as they used to." Mr. A. B. forgets the 

 fact that rubber, like human beings, grows old. It has 

 its stages of infancy, middle age, and decrepitude. Soft, 

 pliant, elastic in youth, its tissue in old age takes on a 

 change not unlike that of the arteries in senility, be- 

 coming hard, stiff and brittle. Negligent owners of auto- 

 mobiles are surprised at the appearance of minute fissures 

 in the side walls of their tires and the manufacturers are 

 scored for the supposed defect, when it is usually a fact 

 that the tire owners have failed to conserve the strength 

 of the tires with proper inflation and to guard against 

 excessive light, heat, abrasion, etc. ; and the tire grows 

 old, like many humans, long before its time. Users of 

 many other rubber articles often leave them lying about 

 carelessly or exposed to stroiTg alkaline or other harm- 

 ful solutions, and then wonder why rubber goods dete- 

 riorate and become irreparable. Even the most expert 

 retreader cannot galvanize new life into a tire that has 

 not been given reasonable care and moderate exercise to 

 kcei) it "fit." 



ARE WE OVERINDUSTRIALIZED? 



WITH the urban share of the population, once but a 

 third, but now approaching two-thirds of the total, 

 the query put by former Secretary of the Interior Lane, 

 "Are we becoming overindustrialized?" has given many 

 cause for serious reflection, and in most instances the 

 essayists are disposed to answer the question in the af- 

 firmative. Even conceding that industrialism, i. e., manu- 

 facturing, is keeping well in advance of agriculture, there 

 is no occasion yet for any anxiety. While the small 

 farmers have become relatively fewer, the number of 

 great stock-raising and agricultural concerns has in- 

 creased aiifl with modern methods and machinery, im- 

 proved ro;ids, motor trucks, etc., the output of the farms 

 is larger than ever. 



In a measure offsetting the tendency toward overin- 

 dustrialism some far-sighted manufacturers, rubber mill 

 owners being foremost among them, have made extensive 

 plans for providing semi-rural homes with small truck 

 gardens for their employes, and the workers show their 

 appreciation of such interest in their welfare outside the 

 mills. It is all in harmonv with the modern idea of har- 



