260 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 1. 1912. 



Middle East are not immortal ; they are not even immune ; 

 and the wage of laborers, even of Coolies, might advance. 

 You have here in the West Indies, soil, climate and rain- 

 fall, excellently adapted for rubber planting. You have 

 the most expert of agricultural advisers. What then 'is 

 lacking? 



PROGRESS OF THE NEW YORK EXPOSITION. 



TWO interesting articles bearing on the New York 

 Rubber Exposition will be found elsewhere in 

 this issue. One is the very readable paper contributed 

 by Sir Henry A. Blake, president of the two rubber 

 expositions held in London, on "Rubber Expositions 

 as a Trade Stimulus," in which he shows the energiz- 

 ing effect on the whole industry of these trade exhibi- 

 tions and conferences of rubber men. The other 

 article is an account of the marked progress made by 

 the organizer of the New York exposition, ]Mr. A. 

 Staines Manders, in arousing the interest of all classes 

 of rubber men on t.he other side of the water in this 

 first American rubber show. Mr. Manders was the 

 organizer of the two London rubber exhibitions, held 

 in 1908 and 1911, and in giving a forecast of the ex- 

 position, to be held in the Grand Central Palace next 

 fall, he speaks not at a venture, but from a full expe- 

 rience. He believes the New York enterprise will sur- 

 pass iri distinction and popular success both of its 

 London predecessors. 



Announcement is also made in this issue of the offer 

 of substantial prizes — the first prize being $5,000, the 

 second $1,500, and the third $1.000— by the London 

 1914 Rubber Exhibition to inventors who can suggest 

 the best method of rendering rubber non-slipping 

 for outside use on pavements, roadways and wherever 

 rubber is exposed to heavy traffic. The conditions 

 under which these prizes are offered will be made 

 public during the New York Exposition. 



LOWER PRICES FOR RUBBER SHOES. 



THE rubber footwear companies did the expected, 

 when, on February 1, thej' reduced their prices. 

 To be sure, the reduction was not as great as the dis- 

 tributing trade — especially the retailer — had hoped ; 

 but it went as far as those familiar with all the con- 

 ditions had anticipated. Boots, lumbermen's and 

 arctics, were reduced in price about 9 per cent., san- 



dals, croquets, and "storms" remaining the same. In 

 other words, heavy goods, wj^jich are large consumers 

 of rubber, have dropped with, the dropping of crude 

 rubber prices; and light goods, where .the cost of rub- 

 ber does not play so important a jiatt, but where the 

 great multiplicity of styles, shapes and sizes, necessi- 

 tating innumerable lasts, enters largely into the cost, 

 have stayed where they were. The farmer, fisherman, 

 lumberman and miner are the beneficiaries ; the town 

 dweller, whose rubber wants, as a rule, do not extend 

 much beyond a pair of light "overs," continues to 

 pay the same. 



As the gross value of the annual footwear product 

 of American rubber factories is not far from $80,000,- 

 000. and as the heavy lines constitute two-thirds of 

 this total value, the 9 per cent, reduction will amount 

 appro.ximately to $5,000,000; but, with rubber selling 

 at $1.10 and lower, as against $1.45, which was about 

 the average price of the crude rubber that went into 

 the 1911 product, there should be a better margin of 

 profit now than a year ago. 



If the manufacturers could have been assured that 

 rubber prices would not again transgress the $1.10 

 mark, they might have scaled prices down a little more ; 

 but that is an assurance no one is in a position to 

 vouchsafe. At present, there seems no reason why 

 crude rubber should show any disposition to climb 

 much above its present price ; but who suspected, 

 when Fine Para was selling at 65c. in February, 1908, 

 that 26 months later it would sell at three dollars? 



THE CONSULTING ENGINEER. 



AGRE.^T deal has been heard of late about the "effi- 

 ciency promoter," the expert who goes into the of- 

 fice of a large corporation, examines the system and the 

 stafT, in theory, at least, detects the weak spots and 

 strengthens them, discovers the leakages and stops them, 

 and puts the entire institution on a basis of the greatest 

 efficiency. Some of this "efficiency" work is undoubtedly 

 successful, but much of it is doomed to at least partial 

 failure, because of the impossibility of devising a gage that 

 shall serve adequately and accurately to measure human 

 capacity. No two men are exactly alike or do their work 

 in precisely the same way. The man whose office is the 

 quietest, whose desk is the cleanest and who appears to 

 spend much of his time looking out of the window, may 

 br the man whose mind is driving the entire organiza- 



