202 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[J^ 



Chinese labor supply for instance. Already certain 

 European publishers of books, because of the high cost 

 of printing and binding are having their work done in 

 China and done well and cheaply. This, of course, is be- 

 cause of the abundance of cheap labor. Now that there is 

 talk and perhaps danger of a labor famine in the United 

 States, and because of the extremely high labor wage 

 here, will not American manufacturers look Chinaward? 

 We are barred by law, passed in the interest of American 

 labor, from bringing the Chinese worker here. There is 

 no law, however, forbidding one to take the work to 

 him. That is why American mills, perhaps rubber mills, 

 may ere long be operated in the Flowery Kingdom. In- 

 cidentally China is very near the vast crude rubber supply 

 of the Malay States and the Dutch Indies. 



PLANTING HEVEA IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



WciKK is soing on, steadily but slowly, in the direc- 

 rection of planting new rubber areas in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, particularly in Mindanao, where large 

 tracts have been cleared in the last 20 months to be 

 planted to Hezra. This is chiefly the work of Dr. J. W. 

 Strong, representing American capitalists. 



There is a wonderful field for rubber plantations in the 

 southern islands and the Department of the Interior in 

 the Philippines would do well to discover why American 

 capital does not come in more rapidly. If it is the 

 fault of existing laws, surely the Filipinios will have 

 them corrected. 



"TECH'S" NEW INDUSTRIAL PLAN. 



A PLAN which has been adopted by the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology is destined to be of great 

 advantage to manufacturers in general if it touches the 

 popular key-note which is intended. In brief, it is to 

 place at the disposal of the various industries of the 

 countn.- all the resources of the great Boston institution, 

 its magnificent library, its consultant staff, experience 

 and general knowledge, upon the payment of a certain 

 annual fee. The advantage to industry is comprehended 

 in the opportunity of obtaining the most skilled advice 

 and ex])erience in the world in solving the various tech- 

 nical problems which constantly arise, many of which are 

 beyond the ken of the average consultant. The idea was 

 advanced in connection with the appeal for the raising 

 of funds which has been recently made. The Institute 

 would virtually be retained by the various industries 

 which subscribe to the plan exactly as though it were a 

 private firm of consulting chemical engineers. 



AN AMERICAN RUBBER RESERVE.. 



AYE.\R or more ago it was seriously proposed that a 

 reserve of crude rubber be created in the United 

 States. It was to be held against failure of overseas 

 crops, embargoes, or prohibitive prices. If we remem- 



ber rightly, 100,000,000 pounds was deemed an amount 

 that would be sufficient for the purpose. Of course 

 there was the financial handicap of interest upon the in- 

 vestment, insurance, and deterioration, to be met and 

 overcome, but those were mere details. 



According to a report just issued by the University of 

 California, summarized elsewhere, an even greater re- 

 serve is already established. The report, the work of 

 Professor Harvey Monroe Hall and his colleague, 

 Thomas Harper Goodspeeed, relates to the existence of 

 millions of pounds of "Chrysil rubber" in our western 

 states, a supply of notable value if the present sources 

 fail or if prices go to the $3-mark again. Three hundred 

 million pounds of crude rubber, which is the estimate 

 all ready for extraction, would easily tide us over a year, 

 in which time we could doubtless get overseas rubber 

 again. 



LOOKING AHEAD IN RUBBER. 



PLANNING for the future of the rubber industry is 

 something that manufacturers, engineers and 

 skilled chemists are constantly doing. In the laboratories 

 of the great rubber manufactories are men who think 

 in rubber for years ahead. They foresee an ever increas- 

 ing production of crude rubber which will make possible 

 the fabrication of articles now undreamed of. It will 

 after all be but history repeating itself. 



The rubber fiber shoe soles came suddenly, but it was 

 thought out long in advance of its debut. Rubber chem- 

 ists and manufacturers waited for low rubber and high 

 leather. The market was finally ready for the fiber sole, 

 as it will be one day for other new and revolutionary 

 rubber products. 



HEAVY SERVICE TIRES. 



A BRANCH of automobile tire production which is 

 destined to increase notably in the next year or 

 two is the manufacture of heavy tires, particularly pneu- 

 matic, for use on what is known as "freight car trucks." 



Where in the past the railroad did most of the "short 

 haul" business, to-day the truck is taking it over quietly 

 and efficiently. As fast as usable roads are built the 

 truck does the freighting. Motor trucks are already 

 widely used in transporting freight from town to town 

 and from farmer to market, and it is to the interest of 

 all shippers to promote this method of transportation as 

 much as possible. The motor truck solved the freight 

 congestion problem of the railroads during the winter 

 months of 1917 and 1918 and they are already being 

 called upon on a much larger scale for the coming 

 winter. 



Once motor roads parallel railroads, a general rail- 

 road strike would be an impossibility, for automobiles 

 would care for the passengers, and trucks the freight. 

 The tire manufacturers are helping toward such pre- 

 paredness to a notable degree. 



