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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



May 1, 1921 



South, and more recently in the Southwest, when a 

 farmer could not get credit unless he planted the greater 

 part of liis land in cotton. Today conditions are reversed. 

 Credit is denied him unless he limits his cotton area to an 

 almost irreducible minimum, so that there may be a better 

 margin between cost and profit on the total value of all 

 his products. Bankers who have been lending as high 

 as $75 a bale on cotton that has been selling of late for 

 $40 are determined not to be caught again with a big 

 balance against them. Nor do they view with indiffer- 

 ence a carr>-over of nearly 10,000,000 bales, much of 

 which might be thrown on the market at any time and 

 break prices still further. 



If cotton is to be financed it must be on a basis fairly 

 profitable to those who lend money to plant and harvest 

 the crop. Hence do they insist that the surplus of this 

 staple be consumed before much more is raised. With a 

 world-wide, reviving demand one thing is then practically 

 as inevitable as death and taxes — cotton will get dearer. 

 It may be that this will prove a handicap to some fabric 

 manufacturers who had not the means or the foresight to 

 stock up with cotton at its low price : yet a better price 

 for cotton will eventually warrant a bigger production. 

 This should help to stabilize both price and output, a 

 condition rubber manufacturers will welcome. Indeed, 

 so intimately related are the two lines, that it may truth- 

 fully be said that a demoralized cotton market is almost 

 as detrimental to the rubber industry as a badly disordered 

 market for crude rubber. 



SELECTING WORKMEN BY PSYCHIATRY 



MANY are the means adopted by mill managers in the 

 hope of overcoming that bugbear of industry, the 

 labor turnover, with its attendant waste of time in en- 

 gaging and breaking in men and the spoiling often of 

 much valuable material by raw recruits. Some of the 

 methods employed in the selection of workmen have in- 

 deed yielded fairly good results and have helped much to 

 lessen the loss referred to ; but too many employers still 

 rely upon methods for judging applicants for work that 

 should be scrapped just as well as their worn-out machin- 

 ery. Old, haphazard ways of "hiring and firing" are 

 .giving way to methods more scientific. The modem 

 tendencv is less chance and more choice in engaging men 

 for service that wastage may be minimized and efficiency 

 enhanced. With competition keener than ever, no plant 

 now can afford to be burdened with a lot of industrial 

 misfits. 



To a considerable extent employment managers have, 

 in dealing with applicants, contented themselves with 

 getting references, studying their general physical ap- 

 f>earance, and requiring them to fill out simple question 

 cards. References are sometimes genuine and truthful 

 facial contours often reveal strength, ability and desir- 

 able traits, and question blanks are usually filled out in 



a perfunctory manner. Indeed, more often than not can- 

 didates for jobs do not make any damaging admissions, 

 such, for instance, as may disclose any moral or civic de- 

 linquency or reveal any nervous or mental handicap that 

 might at once cause their rejection. The objection to 

 most trade tests is that they do not go far enough. The 

 margin of error in determining the job-seekers' potential 

 usefulness is still too large, and there is less excuse for 

 this now in the post-war period when man-power is rela- 

 tively, abundant than a couple of years ago when the bars 

 had l>een deliberately left down in order to get any help 

 at all. 



In the examination of recruits for the Navy surpris- 

 ingly good results have followed the introduction by 

 Lieutenant A. W. Stearns, M. D., of a strictly psychiatric 

 method of determining the fitness of applicants ; and it is- 

 said that out of thousands of cases, it registered 95 per 

 cent correct. A brief, exact, school, social, and medical 

 history of each applicant is taken, apart from other appli- 

 cants, by a trained observer, intent on getting vital, posi- 

 tive information ; and it is said that almost unfailingly 

 the mental test method reveals whether the applicant is 

 vigorous, dependable, industrious, tractable, resourceful, 

 and cooperative, or lacks fair health, is lazy and shifty, 

 not amenable to discipline, or is unable or unwilling to 

 learn. 



There is no good reason why manufacturers should 

 not avail themselves of the knowledge which physicians 

 now have in order to select normal, contented, progres- 

 sive workmen. The tactful putting of a few well directed 

 questions may often mean all the difference between 

 profit and loss. 



IM.'W Day brings a little revolution in the rubber 

 industry. Henceforth the standard golf ball nmst be- 

 made lighter for all tournaments. Its weight, according 

 to the ruling of the highest authority, the Royal and 

 Ancient Club of St. Andrews, London, must not exceed 

 1.62 ounces nor its diameter be less than 1.62 inches. 

 Golf Champion Duncan says that it will make the play 

 easier. .'Vt any rate, credit is given American players for 

 insisting on the less ponderous "pill." 



Evidencing the fact that the rubber industry 

 has held its own remarkably well during the recent (and' 

 passing) general trade depression is the statement of the 

 L'nited States Chamber of Commerce that out of a total 

 of 2,325,000 workers unemployed the maximum for the 

 rubber industry was 50,000, or but one-sixth of the num- 

 ber of idle building tradesmen. Since the survey was 

 made there has been a marked recovery in rubber manu- 

 facturing lines and a gratifying increase in the number 

 of workers back at their jobs. A favorable augury, too, 

 is the development of a better spirit of cooperation 

 between employers and emoloyed in all sections of the- 

 country, a condition largely brought about by tactful,, 

 humane, and progressive mill managers. 



