December i, 1907.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



69 



deep and substantial interest in industrial develop- 

 ment, and all reports are to the effect that the con- 

 tents of the buildings were worthy of the pains taken 

 to house them. Moreover, the people evinced their 

 interest by a liberal patronage of the exhibition. On a 

 single day, we learn, there were 116,000 visitors, and 

 the gates were open for several months. 



All this, of course, did not have to do with rubber. 

 But its pertinence to the rubber industry is clear. The 

 industries of modern Japan are being developed along 

 lines copied from Europe and America, and as every- 

 body knows, each new industrial advance makes a new 

 demand for rubber goods, to say nothing of the in- 

 dividual consumption of rubber among the people. 

 This is understood in Japan as elsewhere, and the gov- 

 ernment has not been slow to use its influence to en- 

 courage the production at home of every class of rub- 

 ber goods that may be required, especially for public 

 use. 



This governmental policy is similar to that of Italy, 

 a great rubber factory in which country was described 

 in the last India Rubber World. Italy is now obliged 

 to import practically nothing in the shape of rubber 

 goods. Not only this, but she exports such goods to 

 an important extent, both to countries having no rub- 

 ber factories, and to those in which the industry is so 

 highly developed as in the United States. For ex- 

 ample, we have shown that for the "harnessing of 

 Niagara," Italy, in competition with the world, secured 

 contracts for the great rubber insulated cables used for 

 transmitting power from the falls. 



The Italian enterprise is mentioned here only as an 

 illustration of the development actually made in the 

 rubber industry in a country in which it has been 

 founded only in recent years. This will show at least 

 that age in the industry will not be requisite to place 

 Japan in an important position among rubber manu- 

 facturing nations. 



THE QUESTION OF PLANTING PROFITS. 



AS has been reported lately in this paper, the rubber 

 trees tapped on the Vallambrosa estate last year 

 showed a profit of nearly $1 gold each. The Val- 

 lambrosa company paid in dividends to its stockholders 

 nearly $200,000 in gold last year. Therefore, say some 

 enthusiastic planting companies in glowing circulars : 

 "We can certainly do the same." But can they? We 

 certainly hope so, and believe that some of them will do 

 better. But if Vallambrosa plants Hevea rubber in the 

 Far East and is successful it does not prove that Castilloa 

 planted in Central America under different management 

 will be equally successful. In other words, would not 

 absolute fairness to the investor in selling stock of a 

 plantation growing Castilloa, or Ceara, or Kickxia, lead 

 the seller to explain that it was a different tree, possiblv 

 in their judgment a better tree, but anyhow to explain? 



This is not written with the idea of insinuating that the 

 Hevea is the only rubber tree that can be cultivated profit- 

 ably. It is our belief that all of the trees named, in the 

 right location, and properly handled, will be good pro- 

 ducers. Is it not, however, the planters' duty of sorts 

 other than Hevea, and in locations other than Ceylon or 

 the Federated Malay States, to furnish facts and figures 

 showing production and profits — that is, if they are going 

 to sell stock ? 



One of the .most singular things in connection with the 

 rubber history is the failure of England — a country which ranks 

 so high in this branch as a whole — to do better in respect of 

 hard rubber. It appears that the last factory in the United King- 

 dom making a specialty of hard rubber goods, after a one time 

 prosperous career, has been closed, with no prospect of having 

 a successor. The English continue to make other rubber goods 

 in large quantities, and to export them on an increasing scale, but 

 they must send abroad for hard rubber. It is not strange that 

 the British fiscal policy should be blamed by some for this con- 

 dition, but this is more easily asserted than proved. Besides, why 

 should the eflfect of free trade upon hard rubber differ from its 

 effect upon soft rubber? Evidently there are people somewhere 

 else who have mastered the hard rubber industry better than 

 the English, and perhaps it would be wise for manufacturers in 

 this line in several other countries not to feel too securely en- 

 trenched against competition from abroad. 



It -■kppe.^rs in order to observe that, although rubber price 

 levels have changed recently to a greater extent than for a year 

 or two past, so little has been heard of the alleged influence of 

 speculators upon the market. In the financial world speculators 

 are ever busy in "bearing" as well as in "bulling" the prices of 

 stocks, but it is only when rubber begins to soar that the cry is 

 heard that it is the work of speculators. Xo doubt speculation — 

 in the sense in which the word is most commonly used — is 

 responsible as often for cheaper as for dearer rubber. But in 

 the long run speculators do not "make the market," and until 

 conditions arise not yet foreseen, consumers must take long 

 chances in the matter of figuring on what their raw rubber is 

 going to cost them for any considerable time ahead. 



Inquiry is beginning to be active for machinery for use in 

 the preparation of raw rubber — for the new type of "rubber fac- 

 tory" to which we devoted an article recently. The demand for 

 such machinery is of too recent growth for standard types to have 

 resulted, but the demand is growing, and likely to rival in im- 

 portance the requirements for rubber goods factories. It does 

 not seem too early for enterprising machinery builders to begin 

 to turn their attention to this new rubber interest; some are doing 

 it already. 



The planters' ASSOCi.'iTioNS in Ceylon and the Federated Malay 

 States, without doubt, have promoted the rubber planting interest 

 in those colonies to an important degree. They have brought 

 about the cooperation of their members in many matters per- 

 taining to plantation development, the preparation and marketing 

 of rubber, dealing with the local authorities, and so on. The 

 associations have thus become recognized as truly representative 

 of the planting interest, as, for example, when petitioning the 

 government on any matter of mutual importance to the estate 

 owners. But the high character maintained by these organizations 

 is due not a little to the fact that they have never been used 

 for the selfish advantage of individual members, but only for 

 the common benefit. 



