March 1, 1917.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



357 



The basis of rates of payment for labor should involve such a 

 scale as will insure for all willing and efficient workers a fair and 

 reasonable standard of living. 



The government should afford opportunities for considering 

 the amendment of the trade disputes acts and of any provision 

 of the factory and workshop acts other than those relating to 

 the health of the workers. 



Encouragement should be given, as far as possible, to profit- 

 sharing and co-partnership agreements, or premium and bonus 

 systems on lines which have proved beneficial to employers and 

 employed in the past, subject to the special conditions of par- 

 ticular trades, and to the maintenance of the standard rates of 

 wages. 



CHEMICAL MANUFACTURERS ORGANIZE. 



The Association of British Chemical Manufacturers has re- 

 cently been organized to promote cooperation between manu- 

 facturers of chemicals and other allied products, to develop 

 technical organization, to promote industrial research, efficiency 

 and advancement. The management consists of twenty, and there 

 are committees of various divisions. Group 8 treats of cellulose 

 products, rubber and substitutes, and Group 5 distillation of coal 

 shales, coal tar primary products. I have not been able to obtain 

 the names of the committees of these groups up to time of 



writing. 



LONDON AS A RUBBER MARKET. 



THE following significant paragraph under the heading above, 

 which is reprinted from "The India Rubber Journal" of Jan- 

 uary 27, indicates that British rubber associations are alive to 

 the recent trend of the trade and may advocate stringent meas- 

 ures to protect London's prestige as the world's great rubber 

 market : 



The growth of direct shipments from the Straits and Ceylon 

 to the U. S. A. has been watched by the London rubber market 

 with some alarm, though the view has been confidently expressed 

 in some quarters that London, because of its financial power, 

 will reassert its superiority as a rubber center after the war. 

 The exchange difficulty now manifesting itself in the East may 

 be the straw which shows the direction the wind is blowing. The 

 fact should not be lost sight of that the government have it in 

 their power to divert the whole trade in British-grown rubber 

 so that it passes through London and Liverpool. For various 

 reasons this may be found expedient, and we shall not be sur- 

 prised if it comes about. 



AUSTRALIAN "HOMING" MOTOR TIRES. 



Under this title the January 1, 1917, issue of the weekly bulletin 

 of the Canadian Department of Trade and Commerce publishes 

 an interesting article on the use of fiber tires for emergency 

 purposes in Australia. 



As in. all other countries of vast distances and comparatively 

 few traveling facilities, the advent of the motor car in Australia 

 has, to a very considerable extent, solved the difficulties of trans- 

 portation. In many parts of the country the roads are merely 

 bush tracks or overland stock routes, on which herds of cattle 

 are driven long distances to the city markets or coastal freezing 

 works. 



The rough nature of the country over which automobiles have 

 to travel and the excessive heat often experienced have made the 

 cost of rubber tires a serious item in maintenance, thereby caus- 

 ing many experiments to obtain a substitute for rubber at a 

 moderate cost. The invention and recent perfection of the Aus- 

 tralian "homing" tire is claimed to have met the emergency at 

 a comparatively small cost. Tests with tires made of various 

 kinds of fiber were carried out, with the result that coir fiber was 

 found to be the most suitable for the purpose because of its 

 lightness, cheapness, resilience, and durability. The greatest dif- 

 ficulty was to discover a method of joining the ends of the rope 

 to make a complete circle of the same size, but eventually a new 

 splice was invented, and the tire as now sold in -Australia is said 

 to be perfect of its type. 



When first placed on the market the "homing" tire was sold 

 as an emergency tire in case of a puncture or blow-out, but it 



proved so satisfactory that in the country districts of some of the 

 states the rope tires are frequently used on all the wheels of 

 automobiles, particularly for station or ranch work and over 

 rough and stony country. 



The tires are bullet, nail and glass proof, and if a speed of 16 

 miles per hour is not exceeded it is claimed that they are almost 

 as soft riding as pneumatic tires. It should be understood that 

 the "homing" tire takes the place of both inner tube and cover, 

 being attached to the rim by four or five straps. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN GERMANY. 



By Our Regular Corrcs(iondcnt. 

 IN the bitter struggle for existence in which Germany is now 

 •^ plunged, it is difficult to write freely. One would like to do 

 so, but one never can tell how vitally important some apparently 

 innocent information may be. However, I believe that no secrets 

 will be violated in telling you that those of our industries that 

 have been working on government orders have, notwithstanding 

 large contributions to war loans and various relief funds, made 

 enormous profits, and that this "boom" period is being utilized 

 for the purpose of carrying on vast mergers. Some of the in- 

 dustrial profits for the fiscal year 1915-16 were astonishing. The 

 net profit of 19 representative rubber companies was 12,000,000 

 marks [$2,756,000], against 10,000,000 marks [$2,380,000] the 

 year before. When this war comes to an end our rubber in- 

 dustry will be possessed of greater organization, efficiency and 

 wealth than ever before, and we believe we know how to see 

 that it will not lack raw materials. This brings me to synthetic 

 rubber. 



SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 

 As I have written repeatedly, I do not believe that synthetic 

 rubber will remain an important factor when peace is reestab- 

 lished. Our non-technical papers derive much satisfaction from 

 the sarcasm they exercise in thanking our enemies for forcing 



Unilerwood tlr Underwood, New York. 



Spring Wheels Used on German Automobiles. 



us to develop rapidly an invention which otherwise might nave 

 grown only slowly in the course of ages; but the fact remains 

 that synthetic rubber is very costly and only suitable for a lim- 

 ited number of purposes. For tires, for instance, I do not be- 

 lieve artificial rubber will ever be able to compete with the 

 natural product, and my belief is sustained by the number of 

 bicycle tire substitutes which are offered and which contain no 

 synthetic rubber, in fact any kind of rubber. The substances 



