106 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1911. 



IF THEY COULD ONLY GET IT! 



IF the rubber industry could only work up to the giddy 

 heights to which it is carried occasionally by the news- 

 gatherers of the daily press, the outlook would certainly 

 give cause for supreme optimism. 



A writer in a Wheeling paper, after beginning a story 

 on rubber footwear in the United States by saying that 

 this line of manufacture is of comparatively recent origin, 

 goes on to remark that the value of the annual production 

 of rubber boots and shoes in this country is $320,107,458. 

 Perhaps he is right ; and perhaps a year's output of Ameri- 

 can rubber boots and shoes is worth the pleasant sum the 

 reporter names. If so, the manufacturers are the proper 

 object of profound sympathy, for they are willing and 

 even glad to take less than one-quarter of that amount. 

 $320,107,458 would average more than $4 a pair for all 

 rubber boots and shoes sold in a year, including children's 

 sandals, that retail for 44 cents a pair, and "Tennis" 

 shoes, that sell for 39 cents. If the makers of rubbers 

 could clean up $4 a pair for their entire product, they 

 could, in three or four years' time buy out the Standard 

 Oil, and pay ofT the national debt. 



which, in their combined form take about one half of 

 the total exports of rubber manufactures. 



\'arious new features are represented in the statistical 

 returns in question, particularly the separate figures of 

 tire exports, the amounts of foreign imports re-exported, 

 and a summary, intended to show at a glance the salient 

 points treated in the preceding detailed tables. 



AMERICAN EXPORTS OF RUBBER GOODS. 



WHILE all the sections of the United States annual 

 statistical returns (quoted on another page) are 

 of interest, those affecting exports of rubber goods are 

 particularly so. From an average of a little more than 

 six million dollars for the years 1905 to 1908 the fol- 

 lowing totals are shown for the last three years: 

 1908-9, $6,615,074; 1909-10, $9,060,895; 1910-11, $10,- 

 947,248. The average of the two years 1909-10 and 

 1910-11 was thus about 50 per cent, above that of the 

 preceding four years, as well as over that shown for 

 1908-9 alone. 



That we have entered upon a period of export ac- 

 tivity is further illustrated by the separate returns of 

 trade with the three principal foreign customers of 

 this country: 



UNITED ST.WES EXPORTS OF RUBBER GOODS. 



To 1908-09. 



United Kingdom $1,761,730 



Canada 953,897 



Gerrnany 534,505 



1909-10. 

 $2,798,578 

 1,565,904 

 713,707 



1910-11. 

 $3,165,246 

 1,861,861 

 711,831 



Aggregate of three countries $3,250,132 $5,078,189 $5,738,938 



Thus the average rate of increase in the aggregate 



exports to all countries is more than reflected in the 



development of trade with the three principal outlets. 



BADNESS NOT BIGNESS THE CRIME. 



THE most talked-of contribution to magazine liter 

 ature in recent years is the article entitled "The 

 Trusts, the People and the Square Deal," which appeared 

 in a recent number of the "Outlook," signed by Theodore 

 Roosevelt. 



Political prognosticators saw in this a disposition on 

 Mr. Roosevelt's part to get into the political arena once 

 more. Many of the daily papers called it a bid for the 

 presidential nomination. His enemies said that he had 

 gone over, bag and baggage, to the Wall 'Street crowd. 

 .Mr. Roosevelt himself says that the article had no polit- 

 ical significance, and that it is simply a repetition in 

 editorial form of views which he expressed many times 

 in speeches and messages when he was President. 



The Colonel's statement is unquestionably correct' 

 There is nothing new whatever in his article. The wide 

 interest it has excited is due, not to its novelty, but to its 

 appearance at this particular psychological moment when 

 the Government's attitude toward trusts is the all-ab- 

 sorbing topic. 



Air. Roosevelt's article, reduced to simple terms, is 

 this: That where the only charge that can be brought 

 against a corporation is its size, it should not be sub- 

 jected to Government attack, size, in itself, being no 

 crime and not properly a valid reason for prosecution. 

 His second contention is that where a great corpora- 

 tion has been proved guilty of violation of the law, it 

 should be adequately punished, and should not be al- 

 lowed to continue in business under the same control, 

 by simplv undergoing a rearrangement of its corporate 

 form. 



In other words, where corporations like the Standard 

 Oil and Tobacco Company, which he mentions, have been 

 proved guilty of illegal practices, it is not adequate pun- 

 ishment merely to put them to the temporary incon- 

 venience of a certain amount of reorganization. The 

 crime should be fastened upon those responsible for it^ 

 and they should be punished. ri 



On the other hand, a corporation whose only offense 

 is that it is capitalized at $100,000,000, or even like the 

 U. S. Steel Trust, at approximately $1,000,000,000, 

 should not, solely on that account be subjected to attack, 

 but should rather be regarded as a proper object for 

 watchful governmental supervision. 



In short, a corporation if guilty should be handsomely 

 punished ; if not guilty, should be decently let alone, re- 

 gardless of size. 



