330 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, 1904. 



rubber, stored away in the center of the earth, and may 

 Mr. Conley be there to report on it ! But the world needs 

 rubber now, in more plentiful supplies than any known 

 forest areas can be made to furnish, and without waiting 

 until now unknown countries or islands are discovered, or 

 unknown chemists arise and produce substitutes. And if 

 Mr. Conley is so hopeful in regard to these possibilities, 

 why not allow the possibility that millions of rubber trees 

 now planted may in a few years be yielding as liberally as 

 many thousands of trees on plantations are already doing ? 

 Consul Conley refers to " fake rubber plantation com- 

 panies", and it does not appear from his report that there 

 are rubber plantations of any other kind, in Mexico or 

 elsewhere. Indeed, he asserts : 



The first experiments in rubber culture were naturally made with the 

 Para rubber tree, the one best known. It was planted in regions which 

 were apparently exact duplicates of those where the wild tree grows, but 

 for some reason the experiments were absolute failures. A number of 

 experiments were made in different countries with various rubber pro- 

 ducing species, all with a like result. 



There are so called rubber planting companies whose 

 methods cannot be condemned too strongly. There are 

 also " fake " gold mining companies, but the United States 

 government does not for this reason issue official declara- 

 tions that gold cannot be mined. The only mitigating 

 circumstance about the Conley report is that it can hardly 

 nullify the work of the national department of agriculture, 

 the reports of which on rubber culture are attracting atten- 

 tion around the world and affording encouragement to 

 legitimate planting interests. 



The rubber industry of Austria is confronted by con- 

 ditions which are neither new nor peculiar to that country 

 The home demand for goods is not large enough for the factory 

 capacity, or to afford satisfactory returns on the capital invest- 

 ed, while the tariff barriers in many directions impede export 

 trade. To make matters worse, the high cost of raw materials 

 cannot be compensated for by advancing the price of manufac- 

 tured goods. The Austrian remedy for these conditions, how- 

 ever, is new, or at least it is proposed to carry out the remedial 

 policy to a greater extent than has been attempted in any other 

 country. The manufacturers have created a central board of 

 control, to regulate production and prices, and placed them- 

 selves under bonds to respect the agreement which they have 

 signed to be guided by this secret agency. It happens that the 

 Austrian rubber industry is in the hands of a few concerns, and 

 that its development is at a slow rate, which conditions render 

 concert of action easier than in a country like the United 

 States, with hundreds of factories, large and small, and new 

 ones springing up every year. The total imports of crude rub- 

 ber into the empire for 1903 amounted to only 2.757,480 pounds, 

 of the value of $1,782,410, and the control of a business of this 

 extent ought not to prove difficult. But what may prove a 

 most inconvenient feature is the fact that some of the Austrian 

 rubber factories are branches of German establishments, of 

 such importance that the German proprietors had to be includ- 

 ed in the Kartel. and on their own terms. That is, they objected 

 to the forms of Austrian law, and dictated that the head- 

 quarters of the combination should be in Berlin. Austrian 

 factories have never yet been able to supply the home demand 

 for rubber goods against foreign competition, the imports for 

 1903 amounting to $2,801,329 in value, against exports of only 

 $2,292,657. Largely more than half the imports come from 



Germany, and, as has been intimated, a considerable portion 

 of the home production is in German hands. Now that theac- 

 tual control of even the Austrian owned factories has been re- 

 moved to Berlin, and funds deposited there, as evidence of the 

 good faith of the Austrian parties to the new agreement, it 

 looks very much to an outsider as if the rubber industry of 

 that country is under too many restrictions to grow any, even 

 if the result of the Kartel should be to stop the further loss of 

 money. 



Not so long ago it was asserted that an ocean cable could 

 not be buPt in the United States, because — well, because none 

 had been built here, or because the English cable makers had 

 gained such a start that they would always keep the lead. Thfs 

 view seemed strengthened when the German Atlantic cable 

 company placed tne order for their first cable with an English 

 works. But the past month has seen the opening of their sec- 

 ond Borkum-New York cable, made in Germany, within less 

 than two years, and in a factory which had never before turned 

 out a deep sea cable. So long as the new cable holds out to 

 work it will be evidence that success in any industry is not 

 confined necessarily to any geographical limits, or monopolized 

 by the first concerns to become established in it. 



There is bitter resentment in Utah. To be more defi- 

 nite, it lies deep in the heart of Mr. William Sunderland, a 

 citizen of Utah, who claims to be the only true original discov- 

 erer of the " rubber weed " in his state, though the honor is 

 claimed for others. Mr. Sunderland writes to the newspapers 

 that he believes " a personal agency " to be at work to deprive 

 him of credit for the discovery, and it would not be surprising 

 if he should do something about it. But things might be 

 worse with Mr. Sunderland. Suppose, for instance, his enemy 

 were impersonal ; it might be much harder to deal with. 



One of the Congo rubber trading companies is report- 

 ed to have set aside some of its profits for last year, to be in- 

 vested in a plantation of Hevea rubber in the Malay states. 

 Does this foreshadow the beginning of the end of large yields 

 and large profits in King Leopold's rubber regions? The 

 company referred to, by the way, is expected to pay a dividend 

 this year of only 100 per cent, as against 420 per cent, a few 

 years ago. 



AN OCEAN CABLE "MADE IN GERMANY." 



THE laying of the second German cable from Borkum, in 

 the North sea, to New York, via the Azores, was com- 

 pleted on June 2, the final splice being made off Fayal. Like 

 the first cable, laid in 1900, it is owned by the Deutsch-Atlan- 

 tische Telegraphen Gesellschaft (Cologne), with close connec- 

 tions with the Commercial Cable Co. (New York). The length 

 of the route is 4142 nautical miles. The first cable, however, 

 was built and laid by the Telegraph Construction and Mainte- 

 nance Co., Limited (London), Germany at that time being 

 without facilities for such work. But the second cable was 

 built at Nordenham on the Weser, by the Norddeutsche Seek- 

 abelwerke Actiengesellschaft, and laid by its 5000 ton cable 

 steamer Stephan, which is also a German production. The con- 

 tract was signed for the new cable on May 31, 1902, and work 

 was begun on it in July, so that its completion required less 

 than two years. 



The German government is now discussing plans for cables 

 to connect their Pacific possessions, and appears likely to be- 

 come an important factor in the extension of submarine teleg- 

 raphy. 



