70 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 191ft 



and dispatch. London has had one for years, and as a 

 result half our imports from England were products of 

 other lands, brought first to the British free port, then 

 resold. As a result, the United States, the greatest user 

 of rubber in the world, got most of this product through 

 England, where the price was set and we paid it, plus the 

 freight. 



UTILITY OF THE RUBBER HEEL. 



ALTHOUGH THE RUBBER HEEL has been ou the mar- 

 ket for many years, its utility as compared to the 

 leather heel is only recently admitted. The sale has 

 now run into millions of pairs, and popular prices at 

 retail range all the way from a dime to 50 cents a pair. 



Combining all the resisting qualities of the best 

 leather, a rubber heel has the advantage of being re- 

 silient, is not cut away as readily as the leather heel 

 on concrete or gravel, is noiseless and saves one from 

 the nerve-tearing jars at every step. 



A special pair of rubber heels was recently made for 

 experimental purposes and after being worn for six 

 months were still in good condition. The cost was 75 

 cents, and on this account they would not be popular 

 as the cost attached would be $1 a pair. Even at that 

 price they might be more economical than leather 

 heels. 



PLANTATION SHARE PROFITS. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the continued surplus and low 

 price of crude rubber, British investors still find 

 rubber shares highly profitable. Ample evidence of 

 this is to be seen in the annual reports of well-estab- 

 lished plantation companies. For example, the Vallam- 

 brosa Rubber Co., Limited, one of the pioneer planta- 

 tions in Malaya, realized a gross average price of 44^ 

 cents per pound for the total 1918 crop as against 48 

 cents the previous year, while the "all in" cost of pro- 

 duction was 21 J4 cents per pound as against 23 cents 

 the previous year. In other words, the net profits still 

 remain a trifle above 100 per cent and have enabled 

 the directors to pay an ad interim dividend of 25 per 

 cent and to recommend a final dividend of 373/2 per 

 cent, making the handsome total of 62^ per cent for 

 the year while still ensuring adequate working capital 

 and an ample reserve. 



Doubtless the days of better than 200 per cent yearly 

 earnings, which created a sensation just before the 

 war, will never return, and perhaps some of the 

 younger companies will never even reach 100 per cent 

 dividends, but so long as present conditions continue 

 plantation shareholders have nothing to complain of. 

 By comparison the earnings from rubber manufactur- 

 ing stocks are a mere pittance. Henceforth, however, 

 demand seems unlikely to exceed supply, and eventual- 

 ly crude rubber may be produced on a margin of profit 

 comparable with that on sugar and similar agricultural 

 necessities of life. 



CHINA YEARNS FOR RUBBER FACTORIES. 



CHINA now being more or less in the limelight its 

 possibilities as a field for rubber manufacture are 

 not being overlooked. British and American tire man- 

 ufacturers already maintain small vulcanizing plants 

 there where the repairing of motor car tires is done 

 efficiently. However, until Chinese roads are put into 

 better shape there seems to be no reason to expect a 

 great expansion in the automobile market outside the 

 principal cities. The jinrikishas (the popular vehicle 

 for the local transportation of passengers) are prac- 

 tically all equipped with pneumatic tires, Peking alone 

 having 15,000 in service. But the outlook for rubber 

 footwear manufacture is large, if some enterprising 

 firm supplies the right kind of shoes. The Chinese 

 shoes are made of cloth, good enough for dry weather, 

 but very uncomfortable in the rainy season. About 

 $500,000 worth of rubber goods are imported intO' 

 China annually. With plenty of cheap labor and a 

 vast crude rubber supply near at hand, rubber factories 

 are bound to come in time. 



GERMANY REVOLUTIONIZES RECLAIMING? 



AT LEAST that is the claim of the company owning the 

 Runge and similar processes. A cursory view of all 

 of the solvent processes, German, British, French and 

 American, however, does not bear out the claim. 



No solvent process adds value to the rubber ex- 

 tracted. In fact the reverse is true. As for valuable 

 by-products they are few. The most important is the 

 fabric. This can be used to a limited degree as shoddy 

 in mats and floor covering, or as fabric in tire acces- 

 sories, repair and rebuilding. Where rubber and fabric 

 are plentiful and prices normal the solvent process can 

 hardly compete with existing standard reclaiming proc- 

 cesses. The German reclaimer is evidently still living- 

 in an atmosphere of blockade scarcity and high prices. 



The FIRST AFTER THE WAR NUMBER OF THAT VALU- 



able technical journal the "Gunimi-Zeitimg," dated 

 July 19, 1919, has been received. It opens with an 

 article rejoicing that peace has been declared and it 

 takes the ground that it is no use to go into the why 

 and wherefore of Germany's collapse ; facts as they 

 are must be faced and every effort made to upraise 

 Germany again. The way to accomplish this is to 

 work and to trust to the future. The blockade is over, 

 commerce is free once more, peace and the tasks that 

 peace imposes are at hand. Set to work and while 

 working keep thinking: "Germany and the German 

 people must become once more what they were." 



Fresh attention is called to the increased use of 

 non-skid tires on motorcycles and the increased use of 

 this vehicle as a delivery car on account of its qualities 

 as a time and money saver in the handling of light par- 

 cels. It means more tires and still more. 



