April 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



311 



had a significant moral bearing. Here are a few lines 



from a Worcester paper : 



"Throwing away millions of dollars worth of 

 rubber in street sweepings, is the latest British 

 indictment of American extravagance. It looks 

 like an elastic joke at the first glance, but the 

 English are not jokers in that class. A. Staines 

 Manders has arrived from London with his pockets 

 full of rubber and rubber plant seeds, and he is 

 going to make ready for a big" rubber show in 

 New York in the fall. Manders claims that it has 

 been shovi'n by chemical analysis that 12 per cent, 

 of the dust in city streets is rubber from auto tires 

 and other wheel rims, and 6 per cent, more from 

 rubber boots and shoes. That makes 18 per cent, 

 of rubber in street dust, and rubber is worth from 

 70 cents to $3 a pound. Manders suggests that in 

 the future a company might be formed to keep the 

 streets of a big city clean for the right to extract 

 the rubber from the sweepings. That would save 

 New York at least $100,000 a year, or might if the 

 graft of Tammany were not more elastic than the 

 rubber. And there may yet come among us a 

 theorist to claim that the conscience of man be- 

 comes much more elastic because of breathing in 

 so much rubber dust of cities." 



All of which goes to show that the royal road to 

 journalistic attention lies not so much through the 

 generous distribution of informing facts and instruc- 

 tive figures as through the casual dropping of some 

 remark that is altogether novel and, preferably, rather 

 startling. The makers of newspapers believe that their 

 readers are not looking so much for information as 

 they are for surprises. They want a jolt. Hence the 

 wisdom of Mr. Manders and his new solution for the 

 great street cleaning problem. Several million people 

 will now hear about the New York Rubber Exposition 

 who in the ordinary methods of disseminating in- 

 formation might never have been reached. 



ARBITRATION ON CANCELLATION OF ORDERS. 



NEW JERSEY RUBBER INDUSTRIES. 



NEW JERSEY can justly claim the position of prece- 

 dence in the form and completeness of its indus- 

 trial statistics, compiled under the direction of Hon. 

 Winton C. Garrison. Chief of the Bureau of Statistics 

 of New Jersey. While the necessarily slow machinery 

 of the national Census Bureau is still coping w'ith the 

 quinquennial figures of 1909, collected in 1910, the vari- 

 ous points of the New Jersey annual industrial census 

 of 1911 dealing with the results of 1910 have already 

 been issued in complete form ; the figures affecting the 

 rubber industry being summarized in another column. 



One interesting fact is disclosed by this compilation, 

 namely : that an increase of nearly 15 per cent, in the 

 value of the product has been efifected with only about 

 1 per cent, augmentation in the horsepower used. The 

 more economical use of power by New Jersey rubber 

 factories is thus demonstrated. 



AMONG the most annoying sources of loss to a manu- 

 facturer is the failure of a buyer to keep the en- 

 gagements on the strength of which the maker has un- 

 dertaken special liabilities of an onerous character. Such 

 is particularly the case in the cotton industry, where, in 

 place of the manufacturer laying in his crude stock in 

 bulk, and using it as required, the usual course is for each 

 important sale of fabrics to be covered by a special pur- 

 chase of raw material, in stock or for later delivery, at 

 the price then current. The whole deal thus forms a 

 chain of transactions, based on each link performing its 

 allotted work. When the final link, acceptance by the 

 buyer, snaps, the whole object of the chain is defeated 

 and what was prospectively a profitable deal turns out 

 just the reverse. 



How to treat such a cancel, formed the subject of a 

 valuable paper read at the 1911 meeting of the National 

 Association of Cotton Manufacturers, by Mr. R. M. 

 Miller, Jr., of Charlotte, N. C, president of the Elizabeth 

 Mills, and one of the leading Southern authorities upon 

 the cotton manufacturing industry. Mr. Miller pointed 

 out that the acceptance of any one of the existing legal 

 alternatives involves expensive legislation, long delay, 

 loss of business and considerable worry of mind. As a 

 counter remedy he suggested a greater respect for the 

 moral obligations involved in a contract, and as a practi- 

 cal measure, arbitration by a committee of experts in cot- 

 ton manufacturing processes, to which body all questions 

 of differences between buyers and sellers should be re- 

 ferred. This board would consist of one member each 

 from The National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, 

 American Cotton Manufacturers' Association, Ark- 

 wright Club and National Association of Hosiery Man- 

 ufacturers ; as well as a member representing commis- 

 sion merchants, converters, dry goods and yarn deal- 

 ers, etc. 



To use Mr. Miller's own words : 



"A verdict rendered by such a board would be more 

 satisfactory and conclusive than if rendered by a jury 

 of any twelve men, ignorant, possibly, of the details of 

 construction and intricacies of manufacturing ; their ver- 

 dict is often arrived at by personal like or dislike, or more 

 probably guess work." 



How far such a plan would be adaptable to the rubber 

 industry is an open question, but the principle sug- 

 gested by Mr. Miller seems to merit, at least, fitting 

 consideration. 



