March r, 1908.^ 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



175 



cern abroad of late, it may be mentioned that up to a few 

 months ago the average measure of activity was prob- 

 ably 25 per cent, above a long maintained normal rate, 

 whereas it is now perhaps 25 per cent, below — say 75 

 now, as compared with 125 last summer. The situation is 

 improving constantly, however, and in our opinion the 

 leading manufacturers would be wise to be prepared for 

 a resumption before long of buying on a very large scale, 

 to make up for the depletion of stocks which has been 

 going on for several months past. 



NOW LET EVERYBODY GET RICH. 



THE perennial optimism which has been referred to 

 so often as the dominant American spirit we have 

 always thought well founded. It is pleasing, how- 

 ever, to find new evidence in its support. We do not 

 wonder that the recent financial flurry caused so little 

 consternation, even among those so nearly affected. It 

 is because every emergency seems to develop the man 

 capable of meeting it decisively and with despatch. These 

 thoughts are suggested by there having been brought to 

 our attention an opportunity whereby any one who may 

 have lost money through recent declines in value may 

 not only recover it, but becomes ten times richer than 

 before. 



Know all men by these presents, therefore, that The 

 Amazon Trading and Development Co. offer the best 

 opportunity yet known for acquiring wealth. Reduced 

 to the last analysis, it is to buy rubber on the Amazon for 

 Tiext to nothing and sell it to manufacturers at more 

 than double the New York price. Could anything be 

 simpler? For proofs we may refer to the prospectus of 

 the company above named, extracts from which follow : 



The native prefers trinkets and other merchandise to 

 money (page 8) ; Mr. Ewing, the president of the Com- 

 pany, obtained 200 pounds of rubber for "a 3-pound bag 

 of salt" (page 10) ; "rubber can be purchased from the 

 natives at a cost not to exceed 10 cents per pound" 

 (page 9)— and so on, ad infinitum. In fact, the Amazon 

 region must be full of "easy marks," for Mr. Ewing 

 naively says : "All sorts of advantageous trades can 

 be made with them and at the same time the natives de- 

 part in a pleased and happy mood" (page 9). 



Now listen: "The best Para rubber is worth in the 

 markets to-day from $1.50 to $1.65 per pound" (page 7). 

 The company figure on selling their entire first year's 

 product in the United States at $1.50 (page 9). All of 

 which works out, to our mind, a profit to the trading 

 company of $3,086.44 per ton — a profit not to be scorned 

 in panic times or any other. 



The company seem to have very special shipping fa- 

 cilities. Their "modern steam vessels," leaving New 

 York or Boston, arrive "in a few days at the headquarters" 

 (page 30) — the town of Egos, 2,000 miles up the Amazon, 

 and still farther. Isn't that going some? The explana- 

 tion of their being able to sell rubber at $1.50 must be 

 that their "modern steam vessels" will get back and 



unload at high prices several days before the slower 

 boats can arrive with their 75-cent rubber. 



Judging from the prospectus, The Amazon Trading 

 and Development Co. appears to consist largely of Mr. 

 L. E. Ewing, a Cleveland (Ohio) lawyer. On page 11 

 we read of "his rare faculty of deciding quickly when need 

 arises, and his nerve in backing up a decision once it 

 has been made." We hope he has done nothing to be 

 ashamed of, however. The booklet says on page 13 : 

 "Mr. Ewing's adventures would fill a book, but they may 

 not properly be recounted here." Mr. Ewing can speak 

 "in Spanish" (page 13) ; he is "in superb physical condi- 

 tion" (page 14) ; when he goes to Egos his bed is "a 

 pneumatic rubber affair," and he takes no medicine "to 

 ward off malaria" (also page 14). 



Is it any wonder that the business of selling rubber at 

 less than $1 a pound is threatened ? It may not be pleas- 

 ing to the manufacturers, but if they don't like the situa- 

 tion let them stop manufacturing and get rich by buying 

 shares of The Amazon Trading and Development Co. 



N. B. — This is not an advertisement. 



British exports of rubber footwear have become larger 

 than from the United States, though the latter have grown more 

 tlian ten fold in the last 10 years. Meanwhile the German ex- 

 port has increased, and most other countries in the same field 

 have held their own. All of which indicates that the wearing 

 of rubber shoes is increasing in the non-manufacturing countries, 

 as well as in the countries where such goods are produced, and 

 that the United States, who were the first to export rubber 

 shoes, may not have made the most of the trade to date. 



^VH.\T A FINE THING IT IS for the automobiling interest that 

 the pneumatic tires used are not made to specifications supplied 

 by New York city official?. 



It will not m.atter so much if artificial rubber is never pro- 

 duced, so long as workable rubber can be obtained from beets 

 and turnips, mistletoe, and a lot of other plants which may be, 

 after all, capable of being cultivated outside the tropics. 



The New York to Paris automobile tour — via Alaska and 

 Siberia — is easily the most spectacular undertaking in its line, 

 but it is not likely to contribute a great deal to tire science. 

 Tires can be exposed to the maximum hard usage of which 

 they are capable in either New York or Paris, and the effect of 

 cold upon tires, and even of ice and snow, can be measured 

 more accurately and generally with more satisfaction on moun- 

 tains far more accessible than the snowrfields on the route of 

 this contest so vigorously press-agented. 



It is a fact of no little interest, and it may prove of great 

 importance, that a plant which actually yields rubtier is to be 

 found in abundance in a temperate zone. If only one such plant 

 should be found native within such limits, the possibility exists 

 that other species might be introduced there. It is particularly 

 interesting that the plant to which we refer in an article on an- 

 other page exists in Europe — in regions adapted to scientific cul- 

 tural methods, if these should seem desirable. 



