March r, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



203 



for use as a lining to rubber boots or in combination with 

 a rubber shoe of some form, as a light weight substitute 

 for the knit or felt boot (Fig. 8). These goods are knit with 



FIQ. 7- 

 The Double foot German FIQ. 8. 



Sock German Sock as worn with Ruhher Overshoe. 



multiple yarns and sometimes with double feet — i. e., one foot 

 inside another, both being knit to a heavy single ply leg, which 

 is provided with a strap around the top to serve as a garter. 



THE TEXTILE GOODS MARKET. 



COTTON goods, so far as the rubber industry is concerned, 

 have not had a free movement during the past four 

 weeks. The restraining influence has been high prices incident 

 to the excessively high cost of staple cotton, and although 

 values have fluctuated over quite a range and continue to do 

 so at this writing, sellers in the goods market have stood 

 firmly to their prices, refusing to grant even the slightest con- 

 cessions when cotton was rapidly declining. Cotton duck 

 mills are curtailing their production in order to make their 

 supply of staple carry them through the season, or until the 

 new cotton crop materializes, while a few mills have stopped 

 their machinery entirely. The majority of these mills bought 

 cotton to cover their contracts last fall, and have refused, as a 

 rule, to make further purchases. What the manufacturer is 

 desirous of knowing is, where the minimum price of the staple 

 is going to stand. If it is to be at 15 cents, then a scale of 

 goods prices can be arranged on that basis and business can 

 forge ahead, but with a market seesawing perpetually, neither 

 the manufacturer nor the consumer is able to get his bearings. 

 It is safe to assert that the manufacturers of cotton duck 

 have never experienced a season like the one through which 

 they are now passing. They have orders on their books call- 

 ing for one kind of duck at a wide range of prices. The far 

 sighted rubber manufacturer who last fall placed his contract 

 for enough duck to carry him through the year did so on the 

 basis ol 19% cents a pound. There was not a large number, 

 however, astute enough to take this course, others preferring to 

 defer the matter in hope to see the price of cotton drop and 



goods values follow in the downward course. The longer they 

 waited the higher cotton went, and goods followed in the wake. 

 Some of the belting people commenced to cover and paid from 

 20 to 23 cents a pound, while a few stood off, believing that the 

 market would eventually go the other way, but that time has 

 not yet come, and while some of the rubber manufacturers or- 

 dered duck during the past month at from 25 to 26 cents, there 

 are others who have been buying in small lots at the latter 

 figure, with the prospect of having to pay still higher prices 

 later on. 



The question naturally occurs, how is the rubber manufac- 

 turer who pays 25 cents a pound for duck going to compete 

 with the manufacturer who pays but 19^ or even 23 cents a 

 pound ? To-day staple cotton is selling on the spot market at 

 2,j{ cents less than it did just one month ago, and yet duck is 

 firm at the same price it was quoted at that time, for the reason 

 that the price for the latter was based on about 12 cent cotton. 

 If the duck manufacturers were compelled to go into the mar- 

 ket and buy cotton now they would advance the price of goods 

 to a parity level which would place duck on a comparatively 

 prohibitive basis. And if it be true as stated in the market that 

 the duck mills are about out of cotton, the above described con- 

 dition appears to be inevitable, and the mechanical rubber man- 

 ufacturers who are buying duck in small quantities at a time, 

 will be placed in a bad predicament. The Trenton rubber 

 workers' strike has been a restraining factor in the goods mar- 

 ket this month, but with this exception the demand has been 

 of an average kind throughout the month. The consumers of 

 light-weight sheetings have not been as active as the selling 

 agents had predicted that they would be a month ago, and still 

 a very fair turnover has been recorded. Prices that were made 

 a month ago have been tenaciously adhered to, but no advances 

 have been asked, prices remaining stationary. 



Following are the prices of cotton middling upland spots at 

 the leading ports: 



New York. 



February 4 16.25 cents. 



February n 14.80 cents 



February 18 13-75 cents. 



February 25 14 30 cents. 



PRICES CURRENT FOR SHEETINGS FOR THE RUBBER TRADE. 



36" Household Favorite 6 "^ cents. 



40" Household Favorite 7 cents. 



36" Henrietta, L L 6 cents. 



3g" Henrietta. H (net) 5 J^ cents. 



3S|' Henrietta, S (net) $% cents. 



40" Henrietta, P. W . . 7^ cents. 



3b" Florence C 4 "^ cents. 



40" Majestic C. C (net) 8}£ cents. 



40" Majestic B B. B " 8 cents. 



40" Majestic B. B " 7% cents. 



40" Norwood " 6 K cents. 



36" India, A. A. A " 7^ cents. 



Sheetings. 

 40" Highgate . . . 6?/c. 

 40' Hightown. ..7 c. 



40" Hobart 7/^c. 



40" Kingstons. ..8 c. 

 3g" Stonyhurst.. .6 c. 



39" Sorosis 5?^c. 



40' Seefeld 8#c. 



40' Selkirk... . 8 c. 



40' Sellew 7j^c. 



4S" Mohawk n c. 



40" Marcus. . . 6J£c. 



40' Mallory 6 c. 



36'' Capstans. . .4^c. 



Osnaburgs. 

 40" Iroquois. ...10 c. 



40" Shamrock. . 10 c. 

 Ducks, 



40' 7 oz. Cran- 



ford. ... 10 c. 



40' 8oz. Chart- 

 res ioj^c. 



40" 100z.Carew.13 c. 



40' 11.oz.Carita.14 c. 



The S. R. Smythe Co. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), repre- 

 sented in New York by Dr. Oskar Nagel, No. 90 Wall street, 

 have issued a catalogue of Suction Gas Producers for Gas En- 

 gines, showing the simplicity and advantages of the construc- 

 tion, and the economy in fuel attained thereby. These produc- 

 ers are built in units from 5 to 150 HP., and yield 1 HP. hour 

 per pound of coal. No boiler or gas holder is required in con- 

 nection with this outfit. \%"y^\o%", 8 pages.] 



