126 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1916. 



note was struck by Dr. Geer when he stated that any 

 problem that affected the customer's interest ought to be 

 regarded as a matter that all could and should debate 

 fully. That there are scores of such questions goes with- 

 out saying, and that their presentation before a congress 

 of alert, practical, working rubber chemists would result 

 in anything other than great general good is incontro- 

 vertible. The rubber chemists have made an excellent 

 beginning. They owe it to themselves and to the trade 

 to go on. 



GUAYULE IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



RUBBER planting in the United States is in sight 

 at last — at least it looks so. The profitable culti- 

 vation of guayule, which had its beginnings with the re- 

 searches of Professor Francis Lloyd, seems assured. 

 This will mean much to the owners of vast tracts of waste 

 land in the South and West. It promises also to bring 

 into use thousands of acres of irrigated lands once fertile 

 but now exhausted as far as ordinary crops go. It will 

 also be of the greatest value to the American rubber trade, 

 an anchor to the windward, and a practical piece of 

 preparedness. 



Para rubber once came only from Brazil. Labor con- 

 ditions, costly freights, and high taxes started the great 

 Para plantations in the Far East. English enterprise, 

 capital and organization did all this. Guayule rubber 

 is or was an exclusive Mexican product. War, con- 

 fiscation, banditry, are giving an impetus to guayule 

 planting in the United States. Is it not possible that 

 American enterprise, capital and organization will do for 

 the United States what England did for the British 

 Empire, and that rubber may some day be produced 

 on a large scale under the stars and stripes? 



TWENTY MILLION TIRES FOR 1917. 



A CONSERVATIVE estimate of next season's tire 

 demands indicates a tremendous increase. Motor 

 cars for both business and pleasure are in greater de- 

 mand than ever. Most manufacturers are everywhere 

 making new sales records, and the increased interest be- 

 ing shown by the agricultural population is particularly 

 significant. The buying power of the 6,000,000 farm 

 owners of the country promises to become an important 

 factor in the sale of moderate priced cars, for while the 

 wheat yield is below normal, other crops are not far from 



their best. Indeed. P. J. Calhoun, general sales agent of 

 the Quaker City Rubber Co., who has just returned from- 

 the West where he has been compiling statistics regard- 

 ing the growth of the automobile business, reports that 

 the sale of cars in the Middle West is unprecedented, 

 and that 75 per cent of the cars sold this year has been 

 disposed of in agricultural states. Indiana sales have been 

 double those of 1914; 10,000 cars were sold in Kansas in 

 less than six months. In the three states of Iowa, Cali- 

 fornia and Nebraska the ratio of motor car owners to 

 total population is 1 in 21, 1 in 23, and 1 in 25, respec- 

 tively ; this means that one family in every five or six has. 

 a car. 



These facts are of great interest as forecasting the 

 probable 1917 tire demand. 1,500,000 new cars will re- 

 quire 6,000,000 tires" for original equipment, and as^ 

 about two-thirds of all motorists carry at least one spare, 

 1,000,000 more may be counted in. According to the 

 National Automobile Chamber of Commerce 9,000,000' 

 tires were discarded last year. As this represents the 

 tire wear of about 3,400,000 cars, the 1917 replacements 

 on 4.900,000 cars according to the same ratio will reach 

 12,970,300, which, added to the 7,000,000 already ac- 

 counted for, makes the colossal grand total of 19,970,300.. 



THE BRITISH CHEW GUM. 



T^HERE has been in times past a certain polite dis- 

 •*• tress on the part of the cultured European over 

 the American chewing gum habit. To him it was vul- 

 gar and offensive, and that it would ever become a. 

 British habit, for example, was not to be imagined. 

 Nevertheless, Britons, French and Italians at the front 

 have become devotees of the habit, and civilians are 

 also following their lead. Perhaps it is a pity and! 

 perhaps not. Gum chewing is in the abstract no more 

 offensive to non-chewers than is smoking to non- 

 smokers. Moreover, it is a comfort in time of stress, 

 and an aid to digestion. It is affirmed that the Yankee 

 nasal tone has been agreeably modified by this habit. It 

 is also claimed that its effect upon floating aspirates is 

 beneficial. Thus, if a Cockney takes up the habit, instead 

 of dropping an H, the plastic cud holds it firmly, in its 

 place, and his English is perfect — so it is said. 



Rubber Has Often Been Termed a LyxuRV. The 

 sufficient evidence that it is a necessity is found in the fact 

 that less than a month ago Para rubber sold in Berlin at 

 $22.50 a pound. 



