THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



f U H PBW 



479 



Reg. United States Pat. Off 



Published 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



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Teleplione — Bryant 2576. 



CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, F.R.G.S., Editor 



Vol. 62. 



MAYl. 1920 



No. 2 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



THE METRIC MENACE. 



FORCEFUL .\XD EMPH..\Tic are the arguments presented 

 by representative American manufacturers to the 

 Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the 

 United States House of Representatives against the in- 

 troduction at this time of metric legislation. There is 

 neither urgent need nor widespread demand, it is con- 

 tended, for any such radical change ; and what agitation 

 there is for measurement with decimal units is fostered 

 rather by academical enthusiasts than practical pro- 

 ducers and thoroughgoing trade builders. While the 

 metric system, in itself, is unobjectionable and, indeed, 

 like our American decimal coinage system has much to 

 commend it, its introduction at this time would be inop- 

 portune ; and such a "reform" might be very hurtful 

 to many American industries. 



One prominent manufacturer says that the adoption 

 of such a system would mean the .spending of millions 

 of dollars and the injection into American business of 

 more confusion than could be overcome in a generation. 

 Indeed, he says such a change would be little less than 

 a commercial calamity. That the introduction of such 

 a sweeping change in standards would slow up produc- 



tion at a time when greater output than ever is needed 

 is self-evident; and if for no other reason our national 

 lawmakers might well postpone action on the proposed 

 metric legislation. 



An automobile concern which exports to all parts of 

 the world a large part of the $60,000,000 worth of ve- 

 hicles produced by it annually, freely states that it has 

 in no way been adversely affected by the use of the 

 current standards of length, weight, etc. Other large 

 concerns testify that not only do they suffer no disad- 

 vantage in making extensive foreign sales, but were they 

 compelled to adopt the metric system they would posi- 

 tively lose hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and 

 might even be forced out of business. 



Objection is made, too, to the unnecessary and ex- 

 pensive hearings on the subject on which a vast amount 

 of data is available in America and England; and to 

 coercing manufacturers into adopting a system which 

 they may under existing laws accept voluntarily when- 

 ever such course is plainly to their advantage. As over 

 half of the export of America's manufactured goods is 

 bought by English-speaking people, all of whom use the 

 inch standard, plainly it would be more to the advantage 

 of the United States to act in concert with other coun- 

 tries using the same standards of measurement in any 

 scheme for improvement than to "go it alone." Alert 

 foreign rivals might easily reap a huge advantage while 

 America would be making a troublous chans-e. 



WHAT MACHINERY HAS DONE FOR RUBBER. 



THAT the business of the twentieth century is founded 

 upon labor-saving machinery as much as upon labor, 

 and even more, is a fact. To catalog the many steam 

 and electric machines and tools that do what the work- 

 man once accomplished would be in itself a great task. 

 Xot only do they spare and supplement labor, they save 

 time, and materials, decrease working hours, increase 

 the productivity of working hours, cheapen the cost of 

 articles, increase the consumption of commodities and 

 bring comfort to millions. 



Charles P. Steinmetz in "America and the New 

 Epoch," says: "One hundred years ago the average 

 workday was ten to eleven hours. Now it is eight to 

 nine hours. It has decreased about 20 per cent. The 

 productivity of work in these 100 years, by the steam 

 engine and the number of inventions and improvements 

 following it, has increased at least tenfold — probably 

 more nearly twenty to thirtyfold — but for illustration 

 let us assume only a tenfold increase. Thus with an 

 average of one hour's work during the day we could 

 now produce as much as we did in ten hours, a hundred 

 years ago." 



This is just as true of rubber as of any other industry. 

 The mixing batch of the days of Goodyear on a small 

 belt-driven mill gave a product of forty pounds an hour. 

 The ninety to a hundred pound batches on the modern 

 high-speed mill easily produces four or five hundred 



