July i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



321 



on which they are based, no matter if mistakes are 

 made in tlie management of this one or that. Are no 

 mistakes ma<le by individual manufacturers, and even 

 by the smallest? Of course the public sentiment 

 against "trusts"' has been due to a fear that the crea- 

 tion of monopolies might enaljle producers to demand 

 extortionate prices, and if this fear proves unjustified 

 by events the popular outcry will cease. 



If industrial combinations have merit at all, there is 

 no reason why they should be confined each to a single 

 country. International trading has become the rule 

 in all important branches, and international combina- 

 tions may become as important in tending to regulate 

 trade between countries as the amalgamation of sev- 

 eral factories having a common purpose in any given 

 countrv. In the steel rail business, for example, or 

 the manufacture of steel armor for warships, where 

 practically the same kind of products is used in all 

 countries, an international combination might result 

 in supplying any particular purchaser with goods at 

 rates lower than those now fluctuating at the instance 

 of individual manufacturers. Besides which, and what 

 is not less important, is the matter of stability of 

 prices, upon which so much depends in maintaining 

 profitable trading conditions. 



The out|)ut of the rubber industry is more diversified 

 than that of the steel works, and is not handled in 

 such large quantities. Still, universal types have been 

 developed in rubber production — for instance, in auto- 

 mobile tires — and in the new economic development 

 now in progress it will not be surprising if interna- 

 tional rubber companies should yet figure in com- 

 merce. We may see a single corporation producing 

 its own rubber on plantations, making all or part of 

 its machinery, manufacturing its textile fabrics, and, 

 generally, controlling all the processes involved in con- 

 verting the tree product into the rubber goods of com- 

 merce. But all of this without controlling the rubber 

 industry as a whole, or making it impossible for new 

 factories to be established by individual initiative. 



It is not unlikely that the formation of international 

 industrial combinations v\ill be facilitated by the re- 

 adjustment of international patent regulations now in 

 progress. For instance, the .American owner of a Brit- 

 ish patent, who must produce the article covered by it 

 in Britain in order to render the patent valid there, 

 will have a direct incentive to join a combination of 

 manufacturers in both countries, thus forming perhaps 

 the nucleus of an international "trust." 



UNDERGROUND WIRES IN BOSTON. 



I "HE report of the commissioner of wires of the city of 

 * Boston for 1907 sliows a large amount of work to have 

 been done during the year in placing underground telegraph 

 and telephone and other electric wires which formerly were 

 operated overhead. At the end of the year the underground 

 electrical services of Boston embraced 1.534,615 feet of con- 



duit, 9,955,032 feet of single duct, and 12,420,799 feet [=2163.3 

 n.ilcsl of cable. Of the 485,526 feet of cable placed under- 

 ground (luring 1907, about 10 per cent, belonged to the 

 Western Un:on Telegraph Co. and the American Telephone 

 and Telegraph Co., employing paper insulation alone. Of 

 the 15 other companies named, 9 are referred to as using 

 rubber insulation alone, and the others rubber to a greater 

 or less extent. 



The following extract from the Boston report may prove 

 of interest generally: 



"During the year there has been no electrical fire due to 

 wiring approved by this department, and I am pleased to be 

 able to report that, with the exception of four fires in sta- 

 tions of the public service corporations, with a reported in- 

 surance loss of $11,383, the total reported insurance loss for the 

 electrical tires in this city during the year was but $166." 



VORITE, A NEW SUBSTITUTE. 



A NUMBER of inquiries have come to The Indi.\ Rubber 

 World as to what Vorite is. Samples have been sent to 

 the office of The India Rubber World, and according to the 

 statement of the manufacturers it is a substitute containing ab- 

 solutely no sulphur and no acid. The melting point for the soft 

 grade is from 300° to 400° F., and for the harder grade 550° F. 

 It is a floating substitute and burns without leaving any ash. 

 It is made in three grades, which are distinguished by the names 

 soft, ground, and white. .According to the makers it absolutely 

 resists o.xidation and drying out, and is already largely used in 

 the manufacture of insulated wire and in general mechanical rub- 

 ber goods. 



ECHO OF MR. BALLOU'S FISHING TRIP. 



'T'HE picture of Mr. Walter S. Ballou, of the rubber trade, 

 ■* and his fine catch of landlocked salmon near Topsfield, 

 Maine, shown in the last India Rubber World (page 312), 

 appears to have created no little interest in the office of the 

 Maine commissioners of inland fisheries and game, at Au- 

 gusta. That office has decided to investigate the conditions 

 of fishing in the region referred to, and the board's civil 

 engineer has been directed to make plans for a fishway at 

 Topsfield, the construction of which w-ill be ordered if the 

 conditions reported with regard to dams are really found to 

 exist. 



INDIA-RUBBER GOODS IN COMMERCE. 



EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES. 



0FFIC1.-\L statement of values of exports of manufactures of 

 india-rubber and gutta-percha for April, 1908, and for 

 the first ten months of five fiscal years, beginning June i, from 

 the treasury department at Washington : 



Belting, Boots -\U 



Months. Packing, and Other Total. 



and Hose. Shoes. Rubber. 



.\pril. 1908 $100,649 $22,651 $320,173 $443-173 



July-March 1.040.985 1,3+2.965 2,802,371 5,186,321 



Total 



Total, 1906-07. 

 Total, 1905-06. 

 Total. 1904-05. 

 Total, 1903-04. 



.$1,141,634 

 . 1,040.560 

 ■ 1.035.705 

 . 794.256 

 . 734.083 



$1,365,616 



i.007,93.S 



1.360.346 



1,100.093 



971.625 



$3,122,544 

 3.015.892 

 2.369.480 

 2,064.066 

 2,036,682 



$5,629,794 

 5.064.387 

 4.765.531 

 3.958,415 

 3.742,390 



The bureau of manufactures at Washington is in receipt of a 

 letter from an American house in the export trade advising 

 that it has a foreign inquiry for a special kind of rubber used in 

 the manufacture of shoes, and would like to hear from firms 

 in a position to furnish the material. 



