March 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



259 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO. 



No. 15 West 38th Sheet, New York. 



CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, Editor 



Vol. 45. 



MARCH 1, 1912. 



No. 6 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



THE FUTURE OF RUBBER IN THE WEST INDIES. 



' I ' HE Eighth Annual Agricultural Conference of the 

 We.st Indies, held in Trinidad during the last week 

 of January, was interesting from any standpoint, hut 

 particularly because of the evidence that rubber culture is 

 at last receiving serious consideration. The possibilities of 

 rubber planting in those islands were so clearly set forth 

 in an address delivered at that congress by Mr. Henry 

 C. Pearson, editor of The India Rubber World, that it 

 seems not improper to reproduce it here. He was 

 elected an honorar^• member of the conference, and he 

 spoke as follows : 



Logically rubber planting should have had its begin- 

 nings, growth and success in the vast fertile reaches that 

 border the Amazon river, Brazil, however, did not em- 

 brace its opportunity and it passed. This rubber mantle 

 (or shall we say mackintosh?) then fell upon Dutch and 

 British Guiana, Trinidad, Dominica and Honduras. 

 Little was done and their opportunity passed. In the 

 Middle East, however, remarkable success was attained. 



Some one has said that "Opportunity knocks once and 



LIBRAE V 



only once at a man's door." I have forgotten who said 

 it and should be glad to forget the saying, for it is gro- 

 tesquesly untrue. Particularly do I believe it to be false 

 as regards the planting of Hevca rubber in this part of 

 the world. 



The West Indian would-be rubber planter fears that heNEW YOK 

 cannot compete with the planter in Ceylon and the MalayBOTANICA 

 States. That, however, is not his problem and will not qardbn. 

 be for years to come. The question is, can he compete 

 with wild Para rubber from the Amazon ? 



To be sure the future success or failure depends upon 

 the law of supply and demand ; or — as a better arrange- 

 ment — of demand and supply. As to the former the 

 manufacturers of the world demanded last year some 

 two hundred million pounds of rubber and allied gums. 

 The question is, will they continue to need as much, or 

 more? Without claiming to be a prophet I believe that 

 twice that amount will ere long be needed. Every indus- 

 try, profession, and art uses rubber in constantly increas- 

 ing quantities. As the Ll^nited States consumes some- 

 thing like half of the world's supply, and as it is a 

 country you must frequently pass on your way to Can- 

 ada, you will pardon me for modestly alluding to it. Our 

 most spectacular rubber-using industry there today is the 

 manufacture of motor tires. We are adding to motor 

 cars already in commission something like 200,000 a 

 year, which means for initial equipment one million tires, 

 counting one spare, and one million inner tubes. With 

 the replacements and equipment for cars already running, 

 there is a conservative estimate of close to four million 

 tires. 



The pleasure car, however, is not destined to be always 

 the leader in motordom. The commercial motor truck 

 will eventually far outclass it in number and in rubber 

 consumption. Horse-drawn trucks have been proved so 

 much more expensive and so inefficient as compared 

 with the gasolene truck, that it is only a question of a few 

 years when the former will disappear. This, with the 

 increasing demand for rubber in engineering, clothing, 

 footwear, druggists' and surgeons' sundries, electricity, 

 aviation, and many other lines makes up a vast total. 



Now as to the supply. It goes without saying that the 

 bulk of the world's product will eventually come from 

 plantations. Wicherley. in his recent excellent brochure, 

 warns the British rubber planters against an "awakened 

 Brazil." I am very fond of Brazil and the Brazilians. 

 My journeys to the rubber centers of the Amazon were 

 wonderfull}- informing and uniformly enjoyable. The 

 Brazilians are awake, but they are tied hand and foot. 

 For the actual needs of the government they are obliged 

 to collect a 23 per cent, ad valorem export tax on every 

 pound of rubber that goes out of the country. Labor is 

 scarce and costly. Provisions, clothing, implements cost 

 many times what they do here in the West Indies. 

 Freights are excessive, and the leaders in commercial 

 activity — English, Cermans, Americans, Portuguese — • 

 are down there for a time only to make money and then 

 to return to their respective homes. There is not capital 

 in Brazil available for rubber planting and outside cap- 

 ital does not care to be taxed, as it would if it embarked 

 in rubber ventures there. Wild rubl:>er from up the 

 Amazon costs anywhere from 2s. or .^0 cents to .Ss. or 

 $1.25 per pound to produce. 



Certainly planters here can produce rubber as cheaply 

 as they can up the Amazon. It is a far cry to the time 

 when Hez-ea plantations in the West Indies will find 

 serious competition from planted rubber in the Middle 

 East. I say this with the hope that there will be no dis- 

 aster there ; but the great areas of planted Hevea in the 



