188 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



IJaniary 1. 1917. 



used to regulate our imports to the requirements of the 

 Allies after the war and thus see to it that their needs 

 and interests have priority over all others. 



Consul General Clive Bayley, however, is discreetly 

 silent regarding the future policy of the Allies with re- 

 spect to crude rubber imixjrts as alifected by the Paris 

 Convention, althougli the Foreign Trade Council, the 

 Merchants' Association of New York and the American 

 Manufacturers' E.xport Association arc all mailing in- 

 quiries and have lodged pertinent citiestions with the 

 administration at Washington. Certainly this irksome 

 situation, together with England's contemplated protect- 

 ive tarifT, holds possibilities that may prove detrimental 

 to American interests. Mewed in this light the imperative 

 need of an adequate supply of rublier grown witliin our 

 own borders as soon as possible Ix-comes more than evei 

 apparent. Meanwhile the fourth convention of the Na- 

 tional Foreign Trade Council, to be held at I'ittsburgn, 

 Pennsylvania, January Zh, 26 and 27, has for its purpose 

 the earnest consideration of the many serious problems 

 besetting our foreign commerce, and it is to be hoped that 

 a scheme for a more satisfactory working arrangement 

 may be evolved. 



RUBBER AND AN AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE. 



THE rubber industry, dependent as it is upon mer- 

 chant ships to maintain the supply of crude rub- 

 ber, looks with approval upon the tendency toward 

 control of American shipbuilding manifested by the 

 purchase of the American Shipbuilding Co. by the 

 -A.merican International Corporation. Imports from 

 the Far East liave already been greatly delayed by 

 the shortage of ships, and it is hoped that this new 

 and broader policy of our greatest American ship- 

 building company may relieve the situation. 



The need of such a course is seen in the fact that al- 

 most every great nation except the United States has 

 followed the example of the British admiralty in for- 

 bidding the transfer of ships to another flag for a 

 period of three years after the close of the war. 

 American owners and shipbuilders, on the contrary, 

 may sell where they please until the new shipping act 

 goes into ef^'ect, and afterwards as soon as the Ship- 

 ping Board's appropriation for the purchase of ships 

 has been exhausted. Thus the whole world is free to 

 buy ships of us, while we can have only those we build 

 ourselves, and our growing foreign trade is to a degree 

 in danger for want of bottoms in which to transport 

 it. Of the 1,300,000 tons of merchant ships under con- 

 tract in American yards over 300,000 tons are being 

 built on foreign account, and it is certain that wider 

 control of the shipyards by American shipping inter- 

 ests will tend to build up an American merchant 

 marine and supply one of our greatest needs. 



At the outbreak of the war the world's merchant 

 shipping amounted to about 49,000,000 tons, and at the 

 normal rate of increase should now be 53,000,000 tons. 

 As a result of losses bv submarine destruction, the 



unusual amount of repair work and greatly increased 

 naval construction, it is estimated that the supply of 

 ships cannot be restored to normal before 1922. Mean- 

 while war conditions in England have raised the cost 

 of ship construction to equal that in the United States, 

 and American shipping interests now see their oppor- 

 tunity to enter this field on equal terms. In the past 

 our shipbuilders have never had under construction 

 enough ships of one type to jiermit the introduction 

 of niethods and economies ordinarily ])racticed in bulk 

 production. Sj'Stematized process manufacturing has 

 enabled .\merica to turn out reapers, automobiles, 

 tractors, etc., more cheaply than any other nation, and 

 shipbuilders feel that the o])portunity at last presents 

 itself to apjjly similar methods to their line as well. 



COTTON AND THE 1917 TIRE FABRIC DEMAND. 



RUliliER and cotton are the two staple raw materials 

 of primary importance for the manufacture of auto- 

 mobile tires. In 1916 the American tire industry alone 

 consumed practically half the world's 1915 production 

 of crude rubber, and 85 per cent of the United States 

 Sea Island cotton crop. It is estimated that 25,000,000 

 tires will be made in 1917. But the yield of plantation 

 rubber has advanced to meet it, aiid while the supply 

 of Sea Island and Egyptian cotton will probably be 

 adequate, there are shipping difficulties and questions 

 of loom capacity that must be considered. 



Sea Island cotton has the preference for tire fabrics 

 because of its great strength. Although it is now 

 grown on the mainland of South Carolina, Georgia 

 and Florida near the sea, the entire American crop for 

 the season of 1915-16 ending July 31 was only 91,920 

 bales, of which 2,727 bales were exported to England 

 and the Continent. .Vbout 85 per cent of the American 

 consumption was used to meet the 1916 demand of 

 about 150,000 bales, and Egyptian cotton supplied the 

 rest. The British West Indies, during the past decade, 

 have been highl}' successful in growing a long-fiber cot- 

 ton with seed obtained from the famous Colonel Rivers 

 plantation oft' the South Carolina coast. 



In view of the inadequate supply of Sea Island cotton 

 it is not surprising that those forehanded American man- 

 ufacturers who have gone into plantation rubber in the 

 Far East should turn their attention to the other princi- 

 pal raw material for tire building. Already one large 

 firm has purchased a tract of 10,000 acres in the South 

 on which to grow Egyptian cotton, and the indications 

 are that others will projjably enter this field. 



Much study has been devoted of late to the idea of 

 providing an adequate rubber supply within our own bor- 

 ders. Long-fiber cotton is equally important ; and as 

 the culture of high-grade Sea Island and Egyptian cot- 

 ton has proved a success along the southern seaboard 

 and in the South, is not its extension to meet our re- 

 quirements an equally important piece of industrial 

 preparedness? 



