October I, 1919.1 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



A Rubber Letter from German>. 



From II ll'cll-Knoicii German Technologist. 



Dividends. 



THE WAR with its horrors is over, a new period of peace has c. Miiller Gummiwarenfabrik. Berlin !'" 7^'' 



begun. The campaign on the border came to an end as \>mnigtc Gothania Werke, Gotha... lo 



, -. u 1 1 . ., . Norddeutschc Gummi- und Guttaperchawaarenfabrik, Berlin... 15 



early as November, but the pohtical and economic strife ni I'liil. Fenin Gummiwaarenfabrik, Leipzig 25 



the interior continues with undiminished energy even to-day. Verern7gt"''BeHi'n^Frankfu;ier Gumn.i;^,a«^^^^^^ Is 



When will the real resurrection from the frightful cataclysm Uipziger Gummiwaarenfabrik, vorm. Julius Marx, Heine & Co. S 



. -^ (lummiwerke Elbe. Hamburg 13 



come about. Let us only hope that a dam may be built against The prospects of the German rubber industry in the current 

 the Bolshevist flood, that all-destroying terror which is far too business year are looked upon naturally with skepticism, for 

 greatly underestimated by you over there, but is far more to-day there is lack not only of crude rubber, but also of oil 

 dangerously menacing than you apparently think. and coal as well as other working materials. The loss of the 

 .\s a token of the difficult conditions with which the German world war and the upset it involves have hit hard the German 

 rubber industry had to wrestle during the war the words "no rubber industry also, and no one can tell what is going to 

 crude rubber" will suffice. That tells the whole story. And haooen. for the factors on which the coming development de- 

 while they succeeded during the period ot thi \\ar in supphing pends are too manj— tht phantom of socializing buMue^s, con- 

 the German textile fictmie- with groat n" mtities ot domestK tinuon iuirc<;t <;tcid\ \\^ge^ igmtim ^nrl .trikr lihor de- 

 fibers fur tl I ,t n^ u r, , , ] and 



^^^^, 



F.^CTORY OF THE H.\N'XOVERSCHE GuMMI-KaMM CoMPACNIE, .\. 



off from the rubber industry. Certainly we must not forget to 

 mention that the preparation of artificial rubber was undertaken 

 on a large scale during the war, and considerable quantities 

 of this synthetic rubber were worked up by the rubber factories. 

 It should be made clear in America that the veil which for a 

 long time was wrapped about the creation of artificial rubber 

 has been lifted. It is certain that the artificial rubber has done 

 good service to Germany during the war years. Now it has 

 again sunk out of sight, at any rate for the immediate future, 

 since the German rubber goods factories are declining to take 

 further quantities of synthetic rubber the moment sufficient 

 quantities of the natural product are imported. .\s to what will 

 become of the great works built to manufacture the artificial 

 rubber, no light as yet has penetrated the darkness that covers 

 the riddle. 



I have before me a number of commercial reports of German 

 rubber factories for the working year 1917-18. We find from 

 these that the factories, in spite of the deficiency in crude rub- 

 ber and the enormous difficulty of procuring other necessary raw- 

 material and stuff to work, were kept fully busy with the manu- 

 facture of the articles needed by the army administration and 

 for economy purposes, and in general were not cut down 

 seriously. It must be taken into consideration, however, that 

 these figures show hardly or not at all the effects of the revolu- 

 tion in the last account. Following are the latest dividends paid 

 by a series of standard enterprises : 



Dividends. 

 Per Cent. 



Continental Caoutchouc & Gutta Percha Co.. Hanover 30 



Mitteldeutsche Gummifabrik Luis Peters, Frankfurt am Main.. 14 



.'\sbest und Gummiwerke Alfred Calmon, Hamburg 20 



Hannoversche Aktien Gummiwarenfabrik 30 



Mannheimer Gummi- Guttapercha und Asbcslfabrik 11 



taxes that have risen enormously, the cessation of exports and 

 the importation of manufactured goods from foreign lands, 

 the inability to compete and the speculation in the markets of 

 the world. .-Ml these things press down upon business measures 

 and circumstances call for an entirely new internal and external 

 organization. 



The Continental Rubber Co., Hanover, expresses the following 

 opinion regarding the future : "We most seriously fear that we 

 shall not be capable of competing in the world markets, and 

 that even at home as soon as our boundaries are opened, we 

 shall hardly be in a position to protect ourselves against foreign 

 competition. However, it rests with us Germans ourselves how 

 we lay out the future. We need quiet imperatively. If lasting 

 peace returns to us, then we may well hope that raw materials 

 will not be withheld and that with them labor will be provided 

 for. because work, the hardest, most strenuous kind of work, is 

 necessary if we are to recover and not go to destruction." 



.\ few days ago the importation of crude rubber was per- 

 mitted and thereby a "first pebble of resistance" was moved out 

 of the way. The important question remains open, however. 

 When shall we receive sufficient quantities to enable us to get 

 manufactures into full swing? We know that there is a clear 

 overproduction of plantation rubber, that therefore great sup- 

 plies are to be had at low prices. How is it, however, with 

 transportation to European markets? The war has brought 

 about a complete change in the rubber market. We are, in the 

 first place, still wholly dependent on London. And here we 

 come to a point that interests in an unusually high degree the 

 German circles that are concerned; it is the development of the 

 .American rubber and automobile industry, the investment of 



