252 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February 1, 1917. 



the Far East. Mr. MacRoberts pointed out that the problems 

 of the rubber industry are very much the problems of the entire 

 industrial life of the nation. As a result of two years of ex- 

 ceptional plant e-\pansion and prosperity, the outstanding fac; 

 of our economical relation to the world is the sudden accumu- 

 lation by this country of a large additional capital. What this 

 means to our own country and to other nations has not yet 

 crystallized into any definite thought, although various judg- 

 ments are being hazarded ; and whether we agree with any one 

 of them, Mr. MacRoberts believes it plain that the question is 

 not only pregnant with business disaster, but that it has the 

 lure of very great opportunities. Developing this line of thought 

 he sounded a wholesome warning, extracts from which follow : 



The fact that the cost of production in this country lias 

 steadily risen to unparalleled heights, the unparalleled level of 

 wages, and the resultant high cost of living, all indicates the 

 difficulties that might come to us through this unusual condition. 

 It indicates how easily this situation might be reversed, and this 

 newly acquired wealth drawn away at the close of the war. 

 leaving only the dregs of a discontent and iiuiumerable difficul- 

 ties of a political and economic nature. Our industry has already 

 expanded, possibly expanded to the limit of our labor market 

 to operate, and if we are to continue to accumulate gold, this 

 labor situation will prevent our investing it in legitimate in- 

 dustrial enterprises. A further accumulation will only result 

 in an expansion of bank credit which we cannot use in our 

 domestic situation. 



This is a situation that is recognized by the Scandinavian 

 countries, and is the reason why they have so strenuously dis- 

 couraged the further importation of gold into their countries. 

 Even if we are ambitious only to hold this gold, we cannot 

 do it unless we can incorporate it promptly into the commercial 

 business of the world. 



The optimistic conclusion that New York is to be the financial 

 center of 'the world, and that the keys of the commerce of the 

 world are already in our hands is clearly untenable, and it is 

 a dangerous teuflency for us to drop into tlie theory that we 



have became in the natural order 

 of things a great trading nation, 

 and that our economic position 

 is protected and secured for the 

 future. In real fact we bring to 

 the situation of being a great 

 trading nation only one element, 

 that is, this newly acquired 

 wealth— money. Our geograph- 

 ical position is distinctly against 

 it. We are outside of the lines 

 of trade and commerce. We 

 Iiave no shipping facilities. _ We 

 even seem to ignore the ordinary 

 economic principles that are ne- 

 cessary to found them. We have 

 not a sufficient number of inter- 

 national banks or other machin- 

 ery for financing a foreign trade. 

 We prohibit the establishment of 

 foreign banks here, which is just 

 as necessary for maintaining a 

 great international trading posi- 

 tion as it is for us to establish 

 our branches in foreign lands. 

 We have few men with any knowledge of foreign trade or inter- 

 national commerce. Our laws have been drafted with a sole eye 

 for a domestic situation and with no regard either for our oppor- 

 tunities or for our necessities abroad. As a nation we have a 

 provincial point of view on all these matters, and until we can 

 develop a settled public opinion which, after all, controls our 

 government, we will have a weak and unstable government to 

 look to for protection. 



Now, getting back to the rubber industry, your situation is 

 jus't the same. You have the same elements in your situation 

 as is in the general industrial life of the country. Where are 

 you going to be to meet your competition when competition is 

 restored, for after all. this great period of prosperity comes 

 directly or indirectly from these alinormal conditions. In in- 

 ternational finance the maxim is that the trade follows the loan. 

 Now, with you it is not a question of whether or not you are 

 to make loans, but whether you will make investments in 

 foreign countries to protect your raw materials, to make your 

 supply of raw materials sure, and at a price which is not unequal 

 to that of your competitors abroad. You have exactly the same 



Courtesy of the Co-operative Fress. 

 S. M.^cRoBERTS. 



Colonel S. P. Colt. 



problems that the whole country has, and it is to be hoped 

 that the Rubber .Association in looking after its own interests 

 will not overlook these problems that apply to the entire 

 country. 



COI.ONEI. COI.T [<E\ lEWS RUBBER HISTORY. 

 Introduced by President Firestone as the dean of the rubber 

 industry, <i manufacturer who had made American influence felt 

 in foreign countries, and the pioneer whose courage and fore- 

 sight had brought us nearer the source of supply by leading the 

 way safely and wisely .for .-\merican capital in the production of 

 lilantation rubber. Colonel Samuel P. Colt reviewed the high- 

 lights of rubber history in his own genial manner interspersed 



with much wholesome humor. 

 Placing rubber as the second of 

 the three greatest forces of civi- 

 lization to-day, the first and third 

 being steel and cement, he re- 

 viewed its source, the origin of 

 its name, early experiments in 

 its use, the discovery of vulca- 

 nization and the manifold appli- 

 cations made possible thereby. 

 In illustration of the mighty 

 consequences of Goodyear' s 

 epoch-making achievement, Mr. 

 Colt pointed to the pneumatic 

 tire which has revolutionized the 

 world. And said he : 



I believe if the automobile 

 had been perfected, and the 

 rubber pneumatic tire had been 

 perfected, and the solid tire on 

 the auto truck had been per- 

 fected twenty years before any railroad had been built, 

 there would not have been one-half, nor one-quarter, nor 

 perhaps one-tenth of the railroads that there are to-day. 

 But what would we have had in its stead? We would 

 have had the most magnificent roads; we would have gone back 

 to the days of the stage coach magnified, and we would have 

 had the most magnificent roads throughout this country that 

 the world ever knew, surpassing even those of Rome. But the 

 railroad was first, and the railroads are built, and it is going 

 to take time to build the roads, but I say now that the auto- 

 mobile and the automoliile truck are going to encroach daily 

 upon the railroads, and for short hauls are going to very largely 

 supersede them, and our roads are going to improve, and you 

 are interested in this great object, Mr. President, of the Lincoln 

 Highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast. I do not believe 

 we can over-estimate to-day the part that rubber is to play in 

 the civilization of the world in the future, and I do not believe 

 that there will be any substitute for the rubber pneumatic tire. 

 I do not know why the -Almighty should have given such a 

 product as rubber to the world, but He did, and they have tried 

 to imitate it, they have tried for synthetic rubber, they have 

 tried all things, but there is nothing found to take its place. 



Mr. Colt then referred to the high rubber prices prevailing 

 within four years and to the fact that the vision of those who 

 experimented in transplanting the Hei'ea from the banks of the 

 .'\mazon to the propitious soil and climate of the Far East had 

 developed an inexhaustible supply that is already providing 

 three-fourths of our need at a moderate price. In closing he 

 emphasized the great present need of cooperation in the in- 

 dustry, quoting former Chairman Hurley of the Federal Trade 

 Commission to the effect that cooperation as opposed to ig- 

 norant competition is the watchword of the era we are enter- 

 ing — cooperation between employer and employe, among busi- 

 ness men, and between business and government. 



Mr. Firestone then said: 



It is a little late, gentlemen, but you may be interested — with 

 no reflection on the rubber industry, you should be interested 

 in what the next speaker may say to you. In Ohio we not 

 only build factories and prepare presidents for the White House, 

 but we look after the finer sensibilities for this country, while 

 we are here, and for the next world we don't want to take 

 any chances. We are not selfish with that influence — we have 



