162 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



1.1 ■■ 



The prevalent opinion is that the advance in tires will 

 probably be one of 23 per cent, although some expect a 

 15 per cent rise at an early date, to be followed by an 

 additional 10 per cent later. An increase of 15 per cent 

 in the price of mechanical rubber goods is generally ex- 

 pected. 



Glancing back but a few years in the tire industry, 

 it will be recalled that the regular practice was to 

 produce tires by hand. Gradually machinery, replac- 

 ing manual labor, reduced the cost of manufacture. 

 This, combined with greater factory efficiency, 

 largely increased production, the lower cost of rub- 

 ber, and keen competition, have served in securing 

 repeated price reductions to distributors and 

 dealers. 



The repeated reductions in the past were justified 

 by the conditions, and now the indications are that 

 the rapidly increasing material cost will force manu- 

 facturers to adopt a higher selling price standard. 



"vacuumed" away. Glaring lights, because they produce 

 eyestrain, which results in damaged work, are shaded, or 

 walls are tinted, and, when necessary, goggles are sup- 

 plied, and so on in infinite detail. In the big plants there 

 are also physicians and nurses in attendance who quaran- 

 tme all who have infectious troubles, from colds to small- 

 jjox, render first aid in scores of cases, and do preventive 

 work without end. 



"A wonderful charity," say you ? 



"Charity" — not a bit of it. Efficiency, not charity, is 

 the basis of this work. The human machine is kept clean, 

 sober, amused, interested, because thus it is the best 

 producer. The extra goods produced pay for all these 

 items many times over. Rubber manufacturers do not 

 offer, nor do their help desire, charity. Today's motto is, 

 'With charity for none and welfare for all." 



WITH CHARITY FOR NONE AND WELFARE FOR 

 ALL. 



THE welfare of the worker, the rubber worker, to be 

 specific, has been on the conscience of the rubber 

 employer, to a degree, from the beginnings of the in- 

 dustry, since, shall we say, 1828. For years acknowl- 

 edgments of such responsibility took the form of turkeys 

 at Thanksgiving or Christmas, with sporadic re- 

 membrances to those who in the fallible judgment of the 

 boss appeared worthy. In the shop and out, the workers 

 were almost wholly the architects of their own fortunes, 

 and t(j their credit, be it said, they built uncommonly 

 well. 



The enormous growth of the rubber trade, the broaden- 

 ing of its outlook, a definite formulation of the rules that 

 govern efficiency, however, resulted in organized welfare 

 work. Nor was this confined to any one division of the 

 industr)'. It developed coincidentally in the great tire, 

 footwear, insulated wire, clothing, hard rubber and drug- 

 gists' sundries factories. In each line, and indeed in each 

 factory, the work took on its own individuality, and in all 

 the results were an appreciable betterment. This im- 

 provement, be it noted, was not confined to the mental, 

 moral or physical condition of the worker alone, 

 but extended to the work both in quantity and 

 quality. 



The patent needs of rubber-working communities are 

 model houses, hospitals, garden plots, ball fields, casinos, 

 club houses, special reading courses, lectures — all of which 

 are excellent and are in use today. But they have to do 

 with the welfare during the hours of relaxation only, and 

 efficiency demands more. It provides for the workers' 

 welfare in the factory and during working hours, and 

 outside as well. Thus safety, light, ventilation, are all 

 made as nearly perfect as may be. Dust, because it clogs 

 the human machine and renders it less efficient, is 



COMMERCIAL SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 



THE news comes from Germany — is even affirmed by 

 the German Chancellor in a speech before the 

 Reichstag — of the use of synthetic rubber in lieu of the 

 natural product. The statement is undoubtedly true. At 

 the same time it is probably of no importance to those in- 

 terested in rubber outside of the countries controlled by 

 the Germanic allies. Before the war synthetic rubber in 

 ton lots was made in Germany. It cost so much, however, 

 that it could not compete in price with either the wild or 

 the plantation product. At the present time, because of 

 the rubber famine in Germany, the price of plantation 

 crepe is between $10 and $12 a pound. At such figures 

 synthetic rubber can be profitably produced. With rub- 

 ber at 86 cents, however, and no famine, synthetic rub- 

 ber would still be commercially impracticable. The rub- 

 ber planter may, therefore, rest secure on a product that 

 costs from one to two shillings, as against one that costs 

 several dollars a pound. The fact that Germany is actu- 

 ally making and using synthetic rubber will, of course, 

 startle some readers. It is for their comfort, therefore, 

 that the foregoing is written. As to further reassurance, 

 there is the fact that the German Colonial Association, in 

 a recent resolution, laid emphasis on the future need to 

 the Fatherland of colonies in which could be grown rub- 

 ber and gutta percha. They advise plantations, not 

 laboratories. The inference would seem to be sufficiently 

 plain. 



UNUSU.aiL INTEREST ATTACHES TO THE DECISION OF 



Judge Lacombe, of the United States Circuit Court of Ap- 

 peals in which he upholds the validity of the Marks patent 

 on the alkali process for reclaiming rubber. Based as it is 

 on a common sense review of the inventor's claims, the de- 

 cision ranks in importance, as regards the rubber manu- 

 facturing industry, second only to the famous decision by 

 which the Goodyear patents were confirmed to the in- 

 ventor. 



