October 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



nearly four times. There does not appear on tlie sur- 

 face any good reason why rubber footwear exports 

 should lag behind; there ought to be a wide market 

 in Europe for American footwear. To be sure, the 

 vast snow-covered territory of Russia is barred, the 

 manufacture of rubber footwear in that country being 

 a government monopoly, and imports being prohib- 

 ited. But there are a great many million people in 

 the British Isles, Norway and Sweden — where they 

 certainly have snow enough — in German}-, France and 

 Austria, who ought to be fair targets for the American 

 rubber shoe manufacturers. There is, to be sure, no 

 lack of local competition, England, Germany, and 

 France all having rubber footwear factories that have 

 long been doing a large and profitable business, but 

 the American rubber shoe, which is lighter, more 

 shapely, and hence more attractive, ought to have no 

 difficulty in attracting custom, particularly in the large 

 cities of England and the continent, where people are 

 not quite so content as their rural compatriots to wear 

 heavy and clumsy looking shoes. Labor in European 

 rubber factories is paid, it goes without saying, much 

 less than in American factories, but over against that 

 disadvantage the American manufacturer has more 

 efficient labor and superior machinery, so that in pojnt 

 of cost he ought not to be seriously handicapped. 



Formerly, the American footwear manufacturers as- 

 signed as a reason why the}- were not more active 

 in securing foreign trade, the fact, or the alleged fact 

 that the home market exhausted their capacities, and 

 that consequently there was no particular necessity 

 for looking away from home for customers. That 

 might have been true a decade ago, but with the added 

 manufacturing capacity of the present day in this line, 

 and in face of the situation presented during the past 

 summer, when many of the mills were closed for 

 several weeks, it is fairly obvious that the American 

 footwear factories can easily take care of more busi- 

 ness if they could get it, and it would certainly seem 

 as if, with a little more strenuous effort, they could 

 get it abroad. 



America. Today there are certainly half a million. 

 It is a bit difficult to estimate the number of balls 

 used, for players vary in times over the course, losses, 

 and in the damage they do to the gutta-percha spheres. 

 Then, too, some have old balls remade, and soiled 

 balls painted. It is pretty certain, however, that at 

 least two dozen balls per season are purchased by the 

 average golfer. That means 12,000,000 balls, at $.50 

 each (the $.75 ones ofifsetting the remades), there is 

 an investment on the part of golf players of $6,000,000 

 per annum. 



James Ryan, in the "Times of Ceylon" thus prophesies: 

 "There are, however, not wanting signs that at some 

 not distant date something may be done to vulcanize 

 rubber before shipment from Ceylon and Malaya. The 

 process is so excessively simple, and so effectively pre- 

 vents the daily alteration in quality and appearance of 

 unvulcanized rubber of all grades (except block or very 

 thick sheet) which now occurs, that it only requires a 

 steady and continuous effort on the other side of the 

 water to ensure a steady London demand. Out and out 

 the best sample of rubber in the show was a vulcanized 

 piece of thin sheet from Gikiyanakande. This was vulcan- 

 ized in England, but it remained unaltered throughout 

 the three weeks it was on show, while unvulcanized estate 

 samples were altering from day to day under the influence 

 of heat, light, oxygenation and enzymes. Even in the 

 case of block rubber, it opens up a vista of possibility 

 which would justify as much expenditure as we Ceylon 

 planters spend on pushing Ceylon tea in America and 

 elsewhere." 



Crude rubber from Ceylon or Malaya sells to rubber 

 manufacturers, say, for $1.25 per pound. The same rub- 

 ber vulcanized on the plantation and sent into the markets 

 would be worth, perhaps, 20 to 30 cents a pound. The 

 reason is that before it could be compounded, calendered, 

 cut and made up it must be devulcanized. and under the 

 most favorable circumstances it would then be worth 50 

 to 60 cents a pound. That is the actual "vista of pos- 

 sibility" that the plan opens up. 



GOLF BALLS $6,000,000. 



A MARKET FOR CARRIAGE TIRES. 



A CONSULAR report from Italy states that in Naples and other 



WITH the increase in interest in out-of-door sports Italian cities the chief method of locaMocomotion is the one- 

 horse cab, and that owing to the iron tire and the rough pave- 

 golf has steadily grown more popular, until to- ^g^t j^ jj ^ ^^^y uncomfortable means of getting about. The 

 day few communities in the L'nited States are without report suggests that here is an excellent market for the solid 

 , . , , _. .^ rubber tire makers of America. The report goes on to say that 



at least a nine-hole course. Five years ago. it was ^,^^ ^^_^^^ condition prevails in most of the other continental 



said that there were a quarter of a million golfers in cities and particul.-irly mentions the cities of Greece. 



