September 1, 1920.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



»-WRARy 



NEW vo^if 



785 



Reg. United States Pat. Off. 

 Published on th 



Reg. United Kingdom, 

 month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 25 West 45th Street, New York. 



Telephone — Bryant 2576. 



CABLE ADDhBSS: IRWORLD, NEW YORK. 



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



Vol. 62 



SEPTEMBER 1. 1920 



No. 6 



SuBscaiPTioN : $3.00 per year, $1.75 for six months, postpaid, for the 



United Stales and dependencies and Mexico. To the Dominion 



of Canada and all other countries, $3.50 (or equivalent funds) 

 per year, postpaid. 



Advestisik 



Rates 



'ill be made kr 



applic 



Remittakces: Should always be made by bank draft. Post Office or 

 Express money order on New York, payable to The India Rubbeh 

 Publishing Ccmpany. Remittances for foreign subscriptions should 

 be sent by International Postal Order, payable as above. 



Discontinuances: Yearly orders for subscriptions and advertising are 

 regarded as permanent, and after the first twelve months they will 

 be discontinued only at the request of the subscriber or advertiser. 

 Bills are rendered promptly at the beginning of each period, and 

 thereby our patrons have due notice of 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



ASSURING THE CRUDE RUBBER SUPPLY. 



IT HAS BEEN- WELL SAID that the nation which lacks 

 vision must surely perish. With equal truth it may 

 be said that no industry, however great, can afford to 

 let success blind it to the need of looking well into the 

 future and adequately planning to conserve the primary 

 source of all its wealth, namely, that which yields its 

 raw material and to which everything else must prove 

 of secondary account. 



The best informed are confident that the rubber in- 

 dustry will expand indefinitely and long be spared any- 

 thing approximating a crisis ; yet if its position is to be 

 made impregnable, regard must be paid not merely to 

 bettering its fiscal affairs, enhancing the efficiency of its 

 workers, improving its processes, and increasing its out- 

 put, but it must give greater attention than ever to the 

 production of crude gum ; not only by extending planta- 

 tion areas, but also by taking every precaution to pre- 

 ^ elude the possibility of crop failure, a lessened yield, or 

 ^ latex quality deterioration, whether due to soil ex- 

 haustion, climatic changes, or plant diseases. 

 *■ All this is but prefatory to hearty commendation of 



an appeal which is being made to rubber manufacturers 

 throughout the worid by the Imperial College of Science 

 and Technology, South Kensington, London, for the 

 support of the Botanical Section of its Department of 

 Biology, and which appeal has recently received vigor- 

 ous indorsement and substantial support from the Coun- 

 cil of the Rubber Growers' Association of England, 

 alined with which are the owners of the largest rubber 

 plantations in the world. These far-sighted business 

 men keenly realize how such an institution can carry 

 on much better than any they might establish among 

 themselves, exhaustive research in rubber plant dis- 

 eases, bio-chemical problems in utilizing tropical flora, 

 bacteriology of soil, plant breeding, and allied subjects 

 of pressing concern to growers and consumers of tropi- 

 cal produce. The British Government contributes gen- 

 erously to the cost of this practical scientific work, but 

 the expense of maintaining such research, keeping up 

 great laboratories, and training numerous students will- 

 ing to devote their lives to the betterment of the rubber 

 industry quite overtaxes the resources of the famous 

 college. 



Apart from the fact that the question of improving 

 rubber conditions at their source is of direct and 

 pecuniary advantage to them, and that the college is 

 ideally fitted for conducting research and worthy of 

 most liberal encouragement, American manufacturers 

 are in this instance afforded an opportunity to show 

 their appreciation of unique and important considera- 

 tion. Not only are they mindful of the valuable pioneer 

 work of English rubber planters, and well do they realize 

 that this country is greatly dependent upon English en- 

 terprise for its supply of raw rubber, and that in aiding 

 the college named and cooperating with the rubber 

 growers overseas they are but helping American in- 

 dustry, but they also do not forget that during the Great 

 War, when production in this country in so many other 

 lines was halted or retarded through inability to import 

 raw material, the rubber manufacturers of the United 

 States knew no shortage of material, having been di- 

 rectly favored with an abundant, unfailing supply of 

 crude gum sold to them at the low, pre-war prices, even 

 though the cost of everything else was sky-rocketing. 



NO SLUMP IN SIGHT. 



THE MIDSUMMER DULLNESS, with its vacatious, a few 

 shut downs and a certain slackening in orders, in 

 the light of the needs of the coimtry does not for a 

 moment argue a general depression in the rubber busi- 

 ness. As the Goodrich company points out, the auto- 

 mobile and motor truck business is due to continue its 

 demand for tires and that in increasing proportions. 

 So, too, the United States Rubber Co. predicts a foot- 

 wear business for next year fully 40 per cent greater 

 than that of the present year. In addition to this is the 



