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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March i, 1908. 



THE LONDON RUBBER EXHIBITION. 



THE plans outlined for the coming International 

 Rubber Exposition in London are interesting, and 

 we should be greatlj- pleased to be able in time to 

 record the complete success of the undertaking. Certainly 

 the exhibition has our support, and we bespeak for it the 

 favorable consideration of every branch of the rubber 

 interest. At the same time it may not be amiss to offer a 

 suggestion or two by way of indicating to its organizers 

 why the exhibition may fail to attract as much support 

 as they are counting upon. 



The Ceylon rubber exhibition of 1906 was a planters" 

 show, held at the center of a new interest of great im- 

 portance to that particular region, and the first tangible 

 demonstration to the public of the success of rubber plant- 

 ing as a business. It was, in truth, a local exhibition — 

 mainly a Ceylon enterprise — though its results were re- 

 garded with deep interest wherever there were investors 

 in rubber plantations, whether in Ceylon or not. Doubt- 

 less other rubber exhibitions of a like character will be 

 held, with like success, so long as there are unsolved 

 ciuestions in the preparation of rubber, the extraction of 

 latex, and so on. But when practice in those matters 

 becomes general, the element of novelty which is the 

 very life of any exhibition that appeals to the public will 

 be gone. 



It would be very interesting to not a few people to see, 

 in London or elsewhere, an exhibition in which should be 

 brought together specimens of every known variety of 

 raw rubber, illustrations of every process or method of 

 preparing the material for industrial use, and factor\- 

 practice as well, and finally a complete collection of manu- 

 factured articles. But rubber products as a class no more 

 interest the general public than textile products or metals 

 or leather goods. And an exhibition supported alone bv 

 the patronage of experts and the comparatively few per- 

 sons engaged in the trade which it represents can hardly 

 make an encouraging financial showing. 



The fact is that rubber goods are on exhibition all the 

 time, through being offered to the public for sale. But 

 they are not offered as rubber goods, or as a special class. 

 Tires go with autonnjbiles, goloshes with other footwear, 

 mackintoshes as clothing, syringes and the like with the 

 general equipment of the drug store, and so on. There 

 was a time when any useful article made of rubber was 

 such a novelty as to justify making it as prominent as 

 possible in public places, but the small number of rubber 

 firms exhibiting at recent world's fairs indicates what 

 manufacturers in this branch feel to-day in regard to 

 making special exhibits. 



But rubber goods manufacturers are exhibitors on a 

 large scale as makers of subsidiary products or accessor- 

 ies. They exhibit tires, cements, and waterproof clothing 

 at the automobile shows ; hard rubber, insulated wire 

 and tapes at the electrical exhibitions ; mechanical goods 

 at shows in connection with conventions of engineers ; 



and rubber foptwear at such footwear shows as are held 

 yearly in London. But in all these cases, however im- 

 portant may be the rubber goods referred to, they are 

 after only accessories, and not the principal incentive to 

 holding the various shows. 



A public display of rubber factorv apparatus and proc- 

 esses would appeal greatly to the manufacturing class. 

 But it is safe to assume that those firms who now guard 

 so carefully the secrets of their factories will take jolly 

 good care not to e.xpose them to the whole world for the 

 sake of contributing to the success of a rubber exhibition. 



THE OUTLOOK FOR BUSINESS. 



WHILE industrial and business conditions cannot be 

 said as yet to have returned to normal conditions, 

 every month shows indications of further im- 

 provement. There is just as much real property in the 

 country to-day as before the flurry last October ; there is 

 more money ; there are as many people as before to be 

 supplied with the necessaries of life and luxuries. None 

 of the conditions existed in October and none exist now 

 such as have caused the financial panics of the past, but 

 another condition existed which has had the effect of 

 checking the mechanism of credit upon which business 

 is based, by giving a blow to general confidence. That 

 was a growing speculative element in the banking world, 

 which, thanks to the more conservative majority of bank- 

 ers in the principal centers, is in a fair way to be elimi- 

 nated. The situation is much as if a cancerous growth 

 had been cut from a human system before becoming fatal, 

 the pain of the operation being soon forgotten in view of 

 the improved condition of the patient. 



One result of the episode has been to give the business 

 world a better appreciation of how much its safety de- 

 pends upon the character of banking methods and another 

 is the warning, not likely soon to be forgotten, that un- 

 sound banking methods, no matter by whom introduced, 

 will not be long tolerated by the real powers in control 

 of the country's financial .system. Nor are the lessons of 

 the late financial disturbance confined to affairs of 

 banking alone. So many apparent fortunes have been 

 built up in recent years without any visible foundation 

 that an idea of the legitimacy of such transactions has 

 become far too prevalent. Better the crumbling of a few 

 houses "built of cards" to-day. even at a sacrifice to many 

 innocent persons, than that the number of such houses 

 should be increased until the ultimate and unavoidable 

 collapse would involve the whole financial and business 

 fabric. The lesson to the industrial world is not to at- 

 tempt an unduly large production with regard to the real 

 capital involved, and to keep in mind the importance of 

 being ])repared always for the periods when individual 

 and general prosperity nuist fall below the high water 

 mark. 



With regard to the india-rubber industry in America, 

 the condition of which has been a matter of so much con- 



