March i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



183 



TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT.'" 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial : 



"Take it or Leave It," 



The Congo and the Madeira 

 Minor Editorial 



Rubber Planting Interests 



[Notes on Plantation Companies in Mexico, Ceylon and West Africa.] 



The Art of Vulcanization 



Problems of Rubber Mill Management- .An Atsvtant Superintendent 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain 



Our Regular Vorrespoiuitnt 



[The Molor Car Industry. Manufacture of Zinc Oxide. Vulcanizing 

 in Ammonia. Kranz Clouth's Book. David Bridge & Co. Droyles- 

 den Rubber Works. Tire Cement. Personal Mention.] 



Death of Carl Maret (With Portrait) 



Deaths iu the American Rubber Trade .. 



New England Rubber Club's Annual Dinner 



Recent Rubber Patents 



[United States. Great Britain. Germany. 



The Manufacture of Wool and Knit Boots 



[With 9 Illustrations.] 



The Textile Goods Market 



France.] 



American Imports of Rubber Goods 

 Rubber Goods in Commerce 



New Goods and Specialties in Rubber (Illustrated) 



[Rubber Sponge Bath Mit and Bath Belt. Milwaukee Patent Punc- 

 ture Proof Tire. Protection Against Drowning " Kleanwel) Tingle 

 Sponge." "Niagrite," for Protecting Cables. New Waterproof 

 Garment. " Excelsior " Tire Protector. " Papirus" Packing.] 



Miscellaneous : 



Stock Cutter for Rubber Work (Illustrated) 



Rubber Shoe Trade In Canada 



Lectures to Rubber Workers 



Manufacture of Window Strips 



An Old Rubber Man Retires [0. N. Squiresl 



Rubber at the Sportsman's Snow 



The Rubber Bow.iug Ball 



The Para Rubber Plantation Co 



News of the American Rubber Trade 



The Rubber Trade in Chicago Our Correspondent 



The Rubber Trade in Akron Our Correspondent 



The Rubber Strike at Trenton Our Correspondent 



The Great Baltimore Firo 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market 



183 

 183 

 184 



185 



187 

 189 



191 



193 

 193 



195 



198 



201 



203 

 204 

 206 



207 



190 

 192 

 194 

 197 

 199 

 206 

 211 

 216 



213 



209 

 210 

 211 

 212 



217 



TT often happens that a wise adage, an ancient saying, 

 •*■ or a neat catch phrase so takes hold upon the mem- 

 ory that it is made to serve occasions for which it is in- 

 herently unfit. To all those who buy or sell, that which 

 heads this article is quite familiar. It means, in plain 

 English, quit bargaining — now or never — "put up or shut 

 up." It is conspicuously discourteous, and is used only 

 by the petty salesman who is infatuated with himself, or 

 the wealthy commercial giant who intends to die fighting. 



For use in our own free country it is.to be discounte- 

 nanced, as it makes enemies needlessly, but what of it in 

 the Orient, where all trading is founded on courtesy ? One 

 would think that such a phrase would never fall from the 

 lips of an American salesman in dealing, for example, with 

 a wealthy Chinese merchant. And yet not long since it 

 did occur. A capable, energetic Yankee had shown sam- 

 ples of goods to a merchant who, by the way, was alive to 

 their quality and cheapness, but instead of closing the sale 

 in a moment, the would be buyer invited the other to take 

 a cup of tea. The salesman was impatient, refused the tea, 

 and said, " Here's the proposition ; take it or leave it." 

 At once the merchant left it. Nor did the matter end 

 there. At his trade guild that evening he told the story, 

 and every member decided that they did not care to deal 

 with such a barbarian, and not one order could he book in 

 the great city that he was then visiting. 



This salesman probably does not know to-day that his 

 impatient attitude, together with that vicious catch phrase, 

 shut him out for all time from a fine market, but his keen- 

 est competitor, not an American, knows and profits by it. 

 Were the case an individual rather than a typical one, it 

 would not be worth quoting ; but it is not, and unless our 

 salesmen recognize the fact that they must be adaptive 

 as well as aggressive, they are bound to be left. Tactful 

 hustle will go anywhere. " Take it or leave it " hustle is 

 of no use at home and less abroad. 



THE CONGO AND THE MADEIRA. 



AX7E have given space to frequent references to the 

 ^ * Congo railway — a line about 200 miles in length, 

 around the cataracts in the lower Congo river — for two 

 very definite reasons. The first is that, but for this rail- 

 way the important rubber development in the Congo Free 

 State would have been impossible, so that its construction 

 has been a matter of concern to the whole rubber industry. 

 The second reason is that the success of the Congo rail- 

 way has always appeared to us to point to the most prac- 

 tical means for overcoming the similar natural barrier to 

 an equally rich rubber region in South America. 



The river Madeira, an important affluent of the Amazon, 

 receives the waters of the Beni and other Bolivian streams 

 which drain a wide rubber district, but owing to a long 

 series of cataracts in the Madeira the cost of transporta- 

 tion by that route is almost prohibitive, and there is no 

 alternative route that is more favorable. A railway of the 

 same length as the Congo road would connect the naviga- 



