176 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March i, 1908. 



AMERICANS ON THE CONGO. 



|V4 R. ERASMUS M. CRAVATH, of New York, recently ar- 

 ^'•^ rived at home after an absence of several months in the 

 Congo Free State, in connection with the concessions with which 

 the name of Mr. Thomas F. Ryan is identified. Mr. Cravath 

 is insistent that Central Africa is no longer so dark as has been 

 painted, and that it no longer offers any inducement to those 

 in search of thrilling adventures. He had seen no camiibals plying 

 their profession: he had taken with him all the comforts of home 

 and found others ; he and his party had gone up the Kasai river 

 in a steamboat of the Ohio river type. Mr. Cravath was interested 

 in finding rubber and studying the labor and transportation facili- 

 ties, upon which he will reserve his information for an official 

 report to the American Congo Co. He did find rubber, however, 

 and a recruiting officer with him had no difficulty in securing 

 150 natives to gather rubber, each under a year's contract. Their 

 pay, he said, averaged 8 yards of cloth a month ; a good worker 

 might get 10 yards, but they were as a rule indolent and thrift- 

 less. In the December Indi..\ Rubber World appeared a picture 

 which was based upon a snapshot of Mr. Cravath while at a 

 station on the Congo last summer. 



The American Congo Co., by the way, are beginning to figure 

 among the exporters of rubber from the Congo. The steamer 

 Bnixctli'sville, arriving at Antwerp on January 28 with 343 tons 

 of Congo rubber, carried 1150 kilograms [^2535 pounds], con- 

 signed to Charles Dethier for account of the .American company. 



* * * 



A L.\TER arrival at New York from the Congo was Mr. Sam- 

 uel Phillips Verner, general manager of the American Congo Co., 

 and directing head of the exploration expeditions that have been 

 opening up the territory in the Ryan-Guggenheim concession 

 in central Africa. Mr. Verner reports that the chief problem is 

 not whether the country is rich in rubber and minerals, but the 

 ways and means of getting the hidden wealth out of the back 

 lands and to the railroad and the rivers are what attention will 

 be directed to for some months to come 



Mr. Verner said, in regard to a published report of his party 

 having got into trouble with the natives at one point, such 

 trouble as occurred was experienced by another division of the 

 American party than that headed by him, and that it really 

 amounted to nothing. A missionary, long resident in the coun- 

 try, who accompanied the other party, became frightened at the 

 actions of some natives and fired a gun, hitting one of them. 

 The white men speedily retired from that locality and Were 

 not further molested. Mr. Verner denied that any other basis 

 existed for the published report that the whole American expe- 

 ditionary force was routed. He does not look forward to having 

 any trouble with the blacks in developing the interests with which 



he is concerned. 



* * * 



.\j< Antwerp journal. La Tribune Congolaise. published re- 

 cently the following: "Travelers returning frotn the Kasai 

 have brought some interesting particulars about the Mohun mis- 

 sion, in regard to which a newspaper at Brussels published a 

 few weeks ago some rather discouraging news, to the effect that 

 the mission had been engaged in a sanguinary struggle with 

 the natives. Tliis news, happily, was very much exaggerateo. 

 This mission, made up in great part of Americans, had pene- 

 trated a region where the arrival of white men in force had 

 led the blacks to believe the expedition to be directed against 

 them. As a result of this the latter attacked the mission which, 

 to avoid an encounter, turned aside into the eastern province, in- 

 stead of continuing on its first proposed route. 



"Unfortunately Father Dalle, a missionary who was with the 

 Americans, fired a shot from a revolver at one of the native 

 chiefs and killed him. The Father, who asserted that he only 

 acted in self defense, was put under arrest and is now at Leo- 

 poldvillc, awaiting trial." 



Mr. Verner looks forward to the use of automobiles for 

 transporting rubber to the trading posts, instead of depending 

 upon the backs of natives, as the Belgians have done. He says 

 that the Congo country is not all jungle country, and that auto- 

 mobile paths can be constructed with little trouble or expense. 

 He thinks that the Congo Free State is destined before long to 

 become a colony of Belgium, and in that event the future suc- 

 cess of trading companies there must depend upon the attitude 

 of Belgium toward them. It has been the policy of those having 

 to do with the Congo state hitherto to get all they could out of 

 the country witiiout putting anything into it, instead of seeking 

 to develop the country. He says : "Up to the present time every 

 railroad laid down has been on the cheapest principle and every 

 steamer has been run until it sank. They have gone at the 

 Congo in a hit or miss way that has not profited them a great 

 deal." 



BUYING ACTIVE IN NEW YORK. 



TPHE merchants of New York have been greatly encouraged 

 ■^ during the past month by the great number of spring 

 purchasers from out of town, and the volume of their purchases. 

 Tlie newspapers about the middle of February reported the pres- 

 ence in the city at one time of about 4,000 out of town mer- 

 chants, including buyers for important houses, chiefly from the 

 West and South. This number had not been exceeded at the 

 same time in former years, and from all accounts the visitors 

 were buying at a rate equal to the best record of the past. 

 There had been a decrease in the volume of orders, following 

 the financial scare in October, but that promises to be compen- 

 sated for by the belated business above referred to. Every- 

 where store shelves have become bare of goods, and they 

 must be filled. And not only are there small stocks of goods in 

 many lines in out of town stores, but the country appears to 

 be financially able to pay for what it wants. 



A visiting merchant interviewed by the New York Tinirs said 

 most folks out of town did not feel the effects of the so-called 

 October shunp in business and would never have known of it 

 only for the fact that New Yorkers themselves crawled to shelter 

 to hide from something that was not going to bother them. He 

 was quoted further as saying that there were no such conditions 

 now as had preceded former panics. The panic of 1803, for 

 example, had followed a big crop failure, at a time when so 

 many farms were heavily mortgaged. Of late crops have been 

 plentiful everywhere, and the farmers have money ahead and 

 no mortgages tn carry. 



The gathering of so many buyers in the city at one time was 

 due to a certani extent to the reduced rates which The Mer- 

 chants' Association of New York arranges with the transporta- 

 tion companies at certain seasons, but not nearly all the buyers 

 arriving recently have availed theniiSelves of these rates, with 

 the accompanying restrictions as to time. 



THE CURE OF RUBBER HOSE. 



A RECENT patent granted to W. H. .Adams, of Montreal 

 ^^^ (British No. 22,410 — 1906), relates to the manufacture of 

 rubber hose so as to prevent "over-curing" or burning. A bundle 

 of rubber tubes are partly cured in a deflated condition and then 

 coated externally with a kind of cement that will soften when 

 heated. The tubes are then drawn into a woven or knitted cover- 

 ing, the ends are closed, and live steam under pressure admitted 

 to cause the rubber to adhere to the woven material. The tubes 

 are then cooled, and a hollow mandrel is inserted in each, and a 

 covering of rubber is formed on the outer surface of the woven 

 tube. Finally, the hose so formed is fully cured, a wet bandage 

 of fabric being temporarily wound round each length to prevent 

 burning. 



