THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



not a driver ; a type of the men who have made the foundation 

 of our country in the past and embody our hope for the future; 

 a typical American; the Theodore RooscvcU of our industry, 

 Charles M. Schwab. 



Mr. Schwab spoke in part as follows : 



ECONOMY FUNDAMENTAL TO EVERY INDUSTRY. 



When I thoutiht of what I might say to this body of gentlemen 

 engaged in the rubber industry, the thought came back to me 

 that, after all, the fundamentals of all industry are alike. Indus- 

 try is founded for permanent success upon one great condition, 

 and that is economy. I wonder how many of you think of that 

 point? Years ago, as a younger man, and perhaps more am- 

 bitious, I used to go to Mr. Carnegie, as president of his com- 

 pany, with the proud statement that wo 

 had made four, five or six hundred thous- 

 and. Wise old gentleman that he was, he 

 would shake his head, saying, "That inter- 

 ests me not, but show me how cheaply and 

 how well you made it." 



Because the conditions of business may 

 make a great profit for you even though 

 the business is badly conducted. But lei 

 the economy of production and its distri- 

 bution be right and the country for all 

 time shares the success of her industry. 



ENCOtTRAGEMENT OF LABOR ESSENTIAL. 



Xow. gentlemen, what was applicable tn 

 that great company is applicable to this 

 great country to-day. It is true that we 

 must take measures suited to the times to 

 aid and help industry. But the one thinu 

 that will stand us always to the good is 

 to say of our industries that no matter 

 what the conditions or times, or what is 

 the condition of trade here, our industry 

 will be permanently established for thi^ 

 country and for the world. 



Now, what does economy mean? I won- 

 der if you have ever analyzed it? There Lieut.-General Robert L. B 

 is nothing that lends value to any manufactured article but lalior th, 

 You may say that in the manufacture of tires or in the manu- "n 

 facture of steel, labor is but 20 or 25 per cent of the cost, but 

 you go back to the man who finds the rubber on the rivers of 

 Brazil, cr the man who digs the iron ore in the fields of Minne- 

 sota, or the railroads that carry the ore to the places of manu- 

 facture, and all of these agencies that carry things to the final 

 crucible of manufacture, and all of it is nothing more than labor. 

 There is no real cost in a manufactured article but labor. Now- 

 then, what is the question that will enable us to become per- 

 manently the best interested in economy? It is the management 

 and the disposition and the encouragement of labor. We manu- 

 facturers of this country have been great autocrats in the years 

 gone by so far as labor is concerned. Labor has not had its fair 

 share of the prosperity of this great and glorious country of 

 ours. And it is a thought that must be borne home as we stop 

 and listen and realize that a man is a man no matter what his 

 position in life as long as he does his duty honestly and con- 

 sly and for the good of his country and his fellow-men. 



business men to make it go. The merchant marine will be of 

 value to every manufacturer and every citizen of the L;nilcd 

 States. And if laws of the United States cannot be passed to 

 make private capital prolilable in business— in the shipping bus- 

 iness — then the whole people of the United Slates in some 

 manner ought to share the burden for the benefit of the United 

 States. The Senate and the Congress shy at the word "subsidy." 

 Well, call it by any other name, but as matters now stand the 

 United States will never have a merchant marine worthy of the 

 name merchant marine, or of the slightest value to this country 

 unless some method of legislation is passed that will enable 

 private capital and private enterprise to reap the profits and reap 

 the benefit from the operation of its merchant ships. 



This is ilic lime when it is popular to decry capital. It is a 

 great mistake, if the initiative and energy 

 of the .-\merican business man is not al- 

 lowed to have his reward for that develop- 

 ment of industry. We may be called a 

 material nation because we have not de- 

 veloped the arts and the sciences as the 

 older nations of Europe have. I am proud 

 of the fact that I am a citizen of a so- 

 called material nation. .Artists, painters, 

 great soldiers, great generals and great 

 admirals may like their names perpetuated 

 in monuments and arches of marble and 

 granite; for me, I shall be proudest if 

 long rows of smoking stacks and flaming 

 furnaces shall mark one step forward in 

 the progress of industry. 



BUSINESS AND LIVING ECONOMY NECESSARY. 



Fundamentally, we must learn economy, 

 not only in our business, but in our every 

 act. We are living, to use a vulgar expres- 

 sion throughout the whole country to-day, 

 like "drunken sailors," practicing extrava- 

 gances such as have never been known in 

 any time. Gentlemen we will reap the re- 

 ward of that expenditure in the years to 

 LL.ARD. ^Qj^g )jy paying thg penalty for the dance 



we have had to-day. There is no good in preaching that we 

 must practice economy. It will have no effect. It must be 

 brought about by the stern necessities that will make us get 

 down to the basis of living and acting economy that will bring 

 us to a true manufacturing basis in this country. What a false 

 position many men have in life who think that the acquisition 

 of riches and the display of riches marks them as factors in 

 men's affairs! The day has gone by when they will mark the 

 man of benefit to his country and his fellow-men in that way. 

 We must learn to live the simple life. 



LAWS NEEDED TO PROMOTE SHIPPING. 



Replying to Senator Edge's remarks regarding .\merica's 

 hastily built fleet of merchant ships, Mr. Schwab said; 



I want to say a word about this great merchant marine that 

 our distinguished senator has spoken about. I want to tell you 

 what mv • ■ • • 



A GREAT CRISIS WOULD BE BENEFICIAL. 



My friends, do not aspire to anything but successful conduct 

 of that which you have undertaken. .Accept the assurance of a 

 man who has seen many phases of life. There is nothing worth 

 while but the contemplation of successful accomplishment of the 

 purpose for which you set out to do. Build up industries and 

 make them successful. Make this great nation of ours stand 

 permanently in the position which she has won in this great war. 

 The .Mmighty has endowed us with natural resources second to 

 no other nation in the world and above all with the people 

 so imbued with patriotism, integrity and energetic ambition as to 

 insure our success as the leader of nations for all time to come. 

 Let us do our part. I believe that we will get to a true basis 

 of economy only after some great crisis that may come upon us 

 to make us realize what the true basis of economy is. The best 

 man in business and in life is the man who has had 



thoughts about it are. This merchant marine that has through some crisis before he becomes truly and permanently 



been built by the United States, true to the traditions of the 

 United States, and that he has so eloquently described, has cost 

 about three or four times what any merchant marine ought to 

 have cost, but we have got to charge it all off as an incident of 

 the war and start in afresh again. 



Now, you can dot the seas of the world with the merchant ships 

 of the United States and you won't have a merchant marine 

 without the soul and inspiration and the capital of the .American 



grounded and fixed in the future success of his life, and what 

 is true of men will be true of nations. We will go through it, 

 and it is so well illustrated by the material on which your indus- 

 try is founded, rubber; its chief characteristic is its elasticity. 

 You can stretch it ten or twelve fold and it will come back to 

 its original form, and so this great nation of ours; you may 

 stretch it to its breaking point; you may stretch it ten to twelve 

 fold, but the energy of its people will bring it back to the original 



