February 1, iyi7.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



251 



A Bureau of Statistics was established last May which, it is 

 hoped, will soon be able to distribute accurate information cover- 

 ing the importing of crude rubber and give the members a valua- 

 ble report concerning the industry in general. 



The following divisions are now affiliated with The Rubber 

 Association of America : The Mechanical Rubber Goods Division, 

 The .Rubber Sundries Division, The Hard Rubber Manufac- 

 turers, The Rulibcr and Fiber Sole JManufacturers, The Rubber 

 Heel Club of America, The Rubber Reclaimers' Club and The 

 American Rubber Manufacturers' Association of London. 



It is hoped that our group organization will be greatly ex- 

 tended in the future and that much benefit will lie derived from 

 the closer association of these groups and the open competition 

 bureaus which may be established. 



The Committee on National Preparedness has completed it^ 

 work and will be succeeded by a research committee. 



The organization has shown a very satisfactory growth during 

 the past year. On January 1, 1916, we had enrolled 191 firm 

 members and 227 associate members. On January 1, 1917, wc 

 had enrolled 231 firm members, an increase of 40, and 235 asso- 

 ciate members, an increase of 8 — making a total membership of. 

 465. There are still, however, a number of organizations directly 

 interested in the manufacture of rubber goods which are not 

 represented, and it is hoped that there will be an increase in the' 

 membership prior to the next annual meeting. 



EX PRESIDENT TAFT ADVOCATES PROTECTION OF OUR IN 

 TERE.STS ABROAD AND RUBBER GROWING IN- AMERICA. 



Ex-Presidont Taft, the principal speaker of the evening, mani- 

 fested a keen insight of the status and needs of the rubber 

 industry gained through four years' residence in the Philippines, 

 where he established a government and made it possible for 

 American capital to grow rubber under the American flag. 

 After reviewing the growth and importance of the rubber in- 

 dustry and referring to the United States as. the vvorld's prin- 

 cipal rubber consumer, he pointed to the present "situation of 

 Germany and the Central Powers as proving that rubber is a 

 military necessity and demonstrating the aw'kwardness of being 

 without an adequate supply in time of war. Mr. Taft then re- 

 viewed the principal sources of cr^ide rubber, touched briefly 

 upon American enterprise in the ownership and maintenance of 

 rubber plantations in the Dutch East Indies and elsewhere, and 

 emphasized the possibilities of the tropical and semi-tropical 

 areas within our national jurisdiction. Our agricultural au- 

 thorities, he said, should be awake in their researches to investi- 

 gate the feasibility of raising rubber in Texas and in those 

 regions of the United States which resemble Mexico in climate 

 and physical conditions. Mention of the guayule industry and 

 its interruption by the deplorable conditions of anarchy now- 

 existing in Mexico brought him to a consideration of our foreign 

 policy with respect to the protection of Americans carrying on 

 industries abroad, and to quote Chief Justice Marshall of the 

 Supreme Court and Mr. Justice Miller as to the manifest con- 

 stitutional rights of American citizens, both individually and in 

 bodies constituting corporations. Continuing he said in part : 



Of course some injustice done to our people in other countries 

 may not be of sufficient importance to justify our going to war. 

 It must always be a matter of degree in resorting to such ex- 

 treme measures. But it will lie a fatal injury to our American 

 enterprise and to the great usefulness of foreign investments "oy 

 our citizens if it is to be understood that we will never resort to 

 extreme measures in discharging the constitutional duty of this 

 country towards its citizens when in foreign lands, and in pro- 

 tecting them against the unlawful invasion of lawless foreign 

 government. And you gentlemen, interested as many of you arc, 

 in the industry of producing crude rubber in various foreign 

 countries, in some of wliich the governments are not the most 

 able, are certainly greatly interested in the maintenance of the 

 constitutional protection of our citizens abroad. 



But we have tropical countries of our own in which rul)ber can 

 be raised. Rubber is produced in some quantity in the Philip- 

 pines. I was greatly interested in the subject when I was con- 

 nected with the Government of Rhode Island, but unfortunately 

 the policy of Congress, which we as a commission protested 

 against, has very seriously interfered with the development of 

 the industry there. Oppressed as Congress was by the popular 

 fear of the power and monopoly .of great corporations in this 

 country, it allowed itself to be frightened into a policy in the 

 Philippines that has worked greatly to tlic detriment of their 



people, to the detriment of this country, and increasing the trade 



of those islands. The limitation contained in the fundamental 

 act of the Philippines forbidding the acquisition of land by foreign 

 corporations of more than 2,500 acres is an absurdity in a tropical 

 country wlicre sugar, rubber and other tropical products should 

 lie encouraged. The risks connected with tropical enterprises of 

 that kind are very great. Everyone who is familiar with their 

 working will appreciate the maxim that in five years of opera- 

 tion you have two bad years, one moderate year, and two good 

 years, and that the destruction of bad years in the tropics is in 

 proportion to the greater violence of natural forces in the tropics 

 than in the temperate zone. The amount of land which ought to 

 be cultivated in the Philippines as compared with the amount that 

 is cultivated is so great that the acquisition of parts of it by great 

 corporations could work no evil at all. It is a mere hobgoblin 

 created by dangers of this country which find no counterpart in 

 a retarded country like the Philippines. We did for 12 or 15 

 years make .great progress in the Philippines in many ways, but 

 we might have made a great deal more progress in helping the 

 people to better industrial conditions had we had the assistance 

 of the capital which was available in the United States, and which 

 adverse legislation kept out of those islands. I am very proud 

 of the work which wt did for 15 years in giving them a good 



government and in bringing 

 about a condition of prosperity 

 there ; in giving half of their 

 school population an opportunity 

 for an education ; in giving 

 them law and order; in giving 

 them good roads; in giving them 

 a good currency ; in giving them 

 a good administration of justice; 

 in giving them good health. 

 But all these things were made 

 possible by the building up by 

 a great civil service guided and 

 strengthened by a body of Amer- 

 icans the like of which I think 

 we have never had in our gov- 

 i ■ ' -^^H^^^H ernment before. The present 



^^^M _ ^^^^^^H policy in the Philippines has been 

 ijt^^^m Si^^^^H^^^I to drive' out of the of the 



^^^^^V^fl^^^^^^^^^^B Pliilippine Government, 

 ^^^^KMf ^^^^^^^^Kk American and we 



m^l^^y^^d^^^^^HB have the Islands over 



Filipino politicians and to a 

 control that, after the impulse of 

 a good government which they 

 have had shall be exhausted, will result in efficiency and corrup- 

 tion and produce a discontent that will ultimately plague us, 

 responsible as we are for the welfare of the Philippine people, 

 it will create a political situation in which bribery and blackmail 

 will become a feature in every great business projected there. 

 It will make investments of capital less likely and will help 

 neither the people of the Islands nor the business of the country. 

 These are the reasons why the rubber industry has not flourished 

 'in the Philippines. I wish it could have been otherwise. 



I felicitate the Rubber Club of America on the enterprise that 

 .\mericans have shown in hunting opportunities for the growth 

 of rubber, and in the increase in the rubber industry. I sincerely 

 hope that it may not be injured by any ill-conceived system 

 of taxation upon crude rubber, which will put our manufacture 

 at a disadvantage witli the manufacturers of the world in com- 

 petition in the sale of rublier goods. I sincerely hope that the 

 utterly illogical process of reducing the duty on manufactured 

 goods and increasing tlie duty on the raw material entering 

 into them will not be further pursued in our economic policies. 

 The theory that rubber is a luxury is of course not true. When 

 it was proposed to tax automc)l)iles on the theory that they were 

 hixuries, investigation satisfied the proposers that they had 

 grown to be necessities, and with them, of course, the rubber 

 tires that are essential to their use. 1 hope tlic lesson which was 

 then learned will be remembered, and that the enormous industry 

 which you represent will be made to pay its taxes in proportion 

 to your profits and your wealth, Init not in such an injurious 

 way as to hamper your competition and productive powers to be 

 used not only for your own reasonable and legitimate profit, 

 but for the benefit of the people of the United States. 



S.XMUEL MACKOBKRTS ON OUR FUTURE I'ROBLEMS. 

 Samuel MacRoberts, vice-president of the. National City Bank 

 of New York in charge of all its foreign interests, spoke in the 

 absence of Frank A. Vanderlip because of illness and was in- 

 troduced by President Firestone as a man to whom the rubber 

 industry is indebted for the estaldishment of the gold dollar of 



W.M. H. T.\FT. 



