September i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



393 



no house having an interest in foreign trade would 

 think of doing business without them. There are in- 

 dications that sentiment at Washington is favorable 

 to such a relation between business and the govern- 

 ment. Steps have been taken to encourage business 

 men to cooperate with the government in the improve- 

 ment of the consular service. There are not a few con- 

 sular officers who are working earnestly to improve 

 the service, and we doubt not that if business men 

 more generally signified an interest in such matters 

 the consular reports would be still further improved. 

 An indication of progress worth noting here is that 

 some capitalists have responded freely to a call for 

 funds for founding a chair in a school at Washington 

 for the training of men for consular work, and it is 

 encouraging to see that the daily press has commented 

 favorably upon the movement. 



THE MODERNIZATION OF RUSSIA. 



SOME of our exchanges have devoted considerable 

 space of late to discussing the question whether a 

 certain Russian firm in the rubber trade has been 

 "bought" by another and larger firm. After all that has 

 been said it would appear that the smaller concern has 

 not been "sold" to the larger, the proof of which is that 

 the founder of the firm — the man who gives name to it — 

 is still doing business at the old stand. If he had sold 

 out his business he would not now occupy the old desk 

 or still be "bossing" the office staflf. 



All this discussion may appear to some minds much 

 ado about nothing, but, after all, it is just as well to get 

 at the facts about such matters. What has happened in 

 Russia is a "merger" of importait rubber interests. 

 A, B, and C, each with an established position in the 

 trade, each doing some one thing better than anybody 

 else, agree not to waste energy by each trying to excel 

 in every department — not to try to get more business 

 by killing oft' the others — but to come to an understand- 

 ing whereby each will be free to develop to the utmost 

 the specialty for which it is best fitted. Actuated by this 

 spirit, each concern helps all the others, with the idea 

 that the total resulting profit will be larger than the ag- 

 gregate in the past, without necessarily placing any new 

 burden upon the consumers. Nobody's business has been 

 "bought" or "sold" ; former competitors have ceased to 

 try to kill each other, but are working together for the 

 general good of the trade, with the idea that what is best 

 for the whole will benefit each and every unit of which 

 it is composed. 



Russia is not the first country in which rubber manu- 

 facturing companies have "merged," and we take it that 

 the principle involved there is the same as elsewhere in 

 matters of this kind. If it isn't, the industry will go to 

 pot, giving an opportunity for new concerns, based upon 

 a better foundation, to occupy the field. Meanwhile 

 there is no reason for worry ; what the people want is 



good goloshes at fair prices, without regard to whether 

 this or that shop has been "bought" or "sold." 



Further evidence of the growth of Berlin, as well as of the 

 disposition of the biggest cities everywhere to attract to them- 

 selves the lion's share of what is good in their respective coun- 

 tries, is to be seen in the removal to the German imperial capital 

 of the estimable Gmnmi-Zeitung, so long identified with Dresden. 



The use of the word "rubber" apparently is becoming more 

 general among Dutch speaking people, whatever may be true 

 elsewhere. In the editorial pages of Hollandish journals, and in 

 their advertisements as well, "rubber" appears without any ex- 

 planation or excuse. Why shouldn't it? Rubber is no more a 

 foreign word there than "caoutchouc," while the use of the shorter 

 word puts one in touch with a greater share of the world's 

 population than caoutchouc or any other synonym. Even if 

 the word is followed by nnjatschappij or TentoonstclUng, the use 

 of "rubber" is an indication of progress which should be wel- 

 comed. 



.\ll the news c.-\n.\"ot be good news, even in the best news- 

 paper. At least all cannot be pleasant news. On another page is 

 a report of the indictment of two officers of what purported to 

 be a rubber plantation company, charged with gross misrepre- 

 sentations made in order to attract investors. We have no 

 comment to make beyond noting that some fraudulent concerns 

 spring up in every business, and to say that their worst feature 

 is that they appeal to that class of the population who can least 

 afford to be swindled. The prospectus of the company referred 

 to oflfered shares, or "bonds," at $300, to be paid for in in- 

 stallments during five years, the investor meanwhile to be en- 

 titled to dividends aggregating $382. In other words, you get 

 the bonds for nothing, plus $82 in cash, after which you are, 

 without any further payment, a full pledged shareholder in a 

 rubber plantation yielding profits so vast — well, the figures are not 

 fit to print ! Of course, no business man was ever asked to 

 buy such stocks, and it may be "good news" after all that the 

 government attempts to protect the weak-minded by assuming 

 that such prospectuses are necessarily dishonest. 



VIEWS ON PLANTATION RUBBER. 



A MEMBER of the rubber trade who has been looking into 

 ■'* the use in the United States of Eastern plantation, sends 

 The Indi.\ Rubber World a note to the effect that two concerns 

 in the insulated wire trade "would be glad to use it all the time 

 if regular supplies could be obtained." From the rate at which 

 the new grade of rubber is coming forward, however, it would 

 appear that no fear need be entertained in respect of the mat- 

 ter of supplies. Regarding a large rubber shoe manufactory. 

 The Indi.\ Rubber World's informant remarks that "they do not 

 care to pay the premium over South .•\merican rubber" to obtain 

 the Ceylon product. A mechanical rubber goods company is 

 quoted as stating that at one time they used a good deal, "but 

 the manufactured goods did not last well." Still the con- 

 sumption of plantation rubber keeps pace with the pro- 

 duction. 



A RUBBER REINFORCER. 



KTOT a substitute, or an adulterant, but a "reinforcer." is 

 ■'■ ' what George Watkinson calls "M. R." hydrocarbon, and 

 he proves it. He got his facts through many experiments in 

 which he took a great variety of rubber compounds, added a 

 pound of M. R. hydrocarbon to it and got a result infinitely 

 stronger and much cheaper. He now finds himself in a position 

 where the trade at large are coming to his way of thinking, and 

 it looks as if M. R. would shortly be ranked among the most 

 notable and staple of the rubber assistants. 



