TKMBKK 1, 1916.1 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



665 



as compared with an automobile with similar furnishings, one 

 showing the first trip, and another the present trip, of a pioneer 

 oTer the old Oregon trail. The pictures are interesting, and arc 

 likely to attract the attention of automobile users and others to 

 the goods of this company. 



The Hardware & Supply Co., Akron, Ohio, sends out a very 

 neat cloth-bound book giving a list, with prices, of the many 

 tools which it makes for rubber workers. The book is well 

 illustrated, showing in detail the many styles of tools made and 

 in some cases explaining their use. There are several blank 

 pages arranged for such additions as may be sent from the firm, 

 or memoranda to be made by the holder of the catalog. 



IMPROVEJCENTS IN DEEP SEA DIVIKG. 



In the July number, Spanish edition, of the Bulletin of llic Pan 

 .\merican Union is an interesting article on deep sea diving. It 

 states that companies are being organized to recover sunken 

 ships and the valuable treasures which have gone down with 

 them, by means of great improvements in deep sea diving result- 

 ing from experiments conducted under the auspices of the United 

 States Navy. This article states that not until the elasticity and 

 imperviousness to water of vulcanized rubber became known did 

 the modern diving apparatus become possible. This apparatus 

 is fully described, and is similar in details to what has already 

 appeared in The India Rubber World (January, 1915, page 189). 

 It is now stated that as a diver can descend to depths of 250 to 

 jOO feet, it seems feasible to salvage ships and treasures that 



have lain at the bottom of the sea for many years. E.xamples are 

 given of many such which are within that distance of the sur- 

 face, also a list of cargoes of gold, silver, bullion, securities and 

 jewelry, all of which it might be possible to recover because of 

 the improvements in diving apparatus which are due to the ex- 

 periments under the direction of the United States Navy. 



Tirt 



COMBINED TIRE RACK AND WINDOW CARD. 



manufacturers appreciate the value of window advertis- 

 ing and many novel cut-outs and cards are made for such dis- 

 play. The Pennsylvania Rubber Co., Jcannette, Pennsylvania, is 

 sending to its agencies 

 racks of heavy, warp- 

 proof, 15-ply card- 

 board. Each rack con- 

 tains a slot in which a 

 tire can be inserted in 

 such manner that each 

 supports the other, thus 

 eliminating brackets or 

 easels. These racks 

 are handsomely printed, 

 each calling attention 

 to. the especial type of 

 tire exhibited, and, al- 

 together, form a most 

 atractive way of show- 

 ing the tires to advant- 

 age. 



Interesting Letters from Our Readers. 



BUYING RUBBER DIRECT IN THE EAST. 



To THE Editor of The India Rubber World: 



DEAR SIR : The article in your July number entitled "A Pro- 

 test From London," on the relative merits of shipping 

 rubber direct from the East to America, and shipping via 

 London, has been read with interest, and it certainly would be 

 against the traditional English policy for the government to 

 adopt any such policy as the "Financier" apparently desires them 

 to adopt. The cliicf argument, however, which should influence 

 the British public against the plan of shipping all the rubber via 

 London is that this will diminish the profits of the British in- 

 vestor. A few of the investors indeed may profit by it, namely 

 the London agents to whom the rubber would be consigned. These 

 people are usually large shareholders, and in addition to their 

 dividends they would get commissions. But what about all the 

 other shareholders? Rubber will not become more valuable by 

 having passed through the port of London, The value of one 

 pound of rubber to an American manufacturer will be exactly 

 the same, and all the extra cost of freight, handling, London 

 commissions, etc., will have to be debited, directly or indirectly, 

 to the producing company, and from all the conversations which 

 I have had with planters in the East I am convinced that they are 

 thoroughly alive to this fact. A country does not grow wealthy 

 through opposing the ordinary economic laws. 



It is also particularly interesting to note that it is the "Financier" 

 which is saying that rubber should come by way of London, 

 and that your contemporary, "The India Rubber Journal" of Lon- 

 don, which is the principal trade paper there, takes quite the 

 opposite view in its issue of July 15 under the beading of "East- 

 ern Rubber Sales." The whole of this article is well worth 

 reading, and the suggestion which they make is a good one, 

 that the London firms who wish to continue handling this rub- 

 ber should open branches in the Eastern ports. This would 



be a good plan. They would earn the same commissions which 

 they are earning now, and yet they w-ould do useful work for 

 their living, instead of simply duplicating other people's work 

 in a useless manner. 



Yours truly, 



A Buyer in E.vstkrx M.\rkets. 



FROM A WELL KNOWN EDITOR AND ESSAYIST. 



I'm riiK IJiiTOR OF The India Rubber World: 



DEAR SIR: Your leading editorial in the August issue, en- 

 titled "Preparedness — Looking Backward," and taking the 

 unique form of an imaginative letter, will set many men. old 

 as well as young in the trade, to thinking. There is ever a 

 tendency to become so thoroughly engrossed with one's own 

 problems of the day as to fail to give due thought to the mor- 

 row or to see things from other than one's own, often narrow 

 viewpoint, and there is no better way for the prophetic thinker 

 to enlighten those who look to him for inspiration than to pic- 

 ture as lucidly as may be a possible outcome of present condi- 

 tions, their consequences and avoidance in years to come. In 

 doing this so logically, you have sounded a much needed warn- 

 ing at a time when an object lesson is being enacted across the 

 seas which emphasizes its significance most emphatically. 



We have heard much recently about industrial preparedness 

 in the abstract. For the most part it has been mere exhorta- 

 tion without concrete particulars, but you seem to have brought 

 tlie entire rubber industry into true perspective in its relation 

 to military expediency, to have appreciated its weaknesses and 

 to have pointed out likely means of remedy. Rubber has come 

 to occupy so important a place in the processes of war, as well 

 as of peace, that there is great need of constructive suggestions 

 such as yours emanating from an authority untrammcled by 

 entangling alliances of the trade, and possessed of a broader 



