May 1. 1917.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



463 



Interesting Letters from Our Readers. 



OUR GROWING RUBBER TRADE WITH THE DUTCH 

 EAST INDIES. 



To THE Editor of The India Rubber World: 



DEAR SIR — According to the present trend of the trade the 

 Dutch East Indies promise to become a greater source of 

 rubber for American manufacturers than ever before. The 

 demand for smoked sheet from Java and Sumatra plantations, al- 

 ways good, has increased considerably of late because of ob- 

 stacles placed in the way of American buyers in the British 

 colonies. The increasing war export duty, which has no counter- 

 part in the Dutch colonies, is perhaps the principal reason, al- 

 though tlie permit, which must be procured of the Tire and Rub- 

 ber Committee in London, is an important factor because it 

 delays and renders shipments so uncertain. It is to be hoped that 

 with the United States in arms shoulder to shoulder with 

 England, the American rubber trade may be relieved of some, at 

 least, of the many formalities which have attended all rubber im- 

 ports during the war. 



England cannot well afford to lose her largest rubber customer, 

 which consumed about 80,000 tons of plantation rubber in 1916, 

 for which an average price of 70 cents a pound or $1,568 a ton 

 was paid. The year's total business, therefore, aggregated $125,- 

 440,000, and as the profits averaged 45 cents a pound, Malayan 

 planters are $80,640,000 the richer thereby. The Dutch rubber 

 production is increasing steadily, however, and the acreage and 

 bearing figures of the Growers' Association of Batavia indicate 

 that it will reach 120,000 tons annually in 1919, which is 5,000 

 tons more than the total consumption of the United States in 

 1916. A more considerate arrangement with America is the only 

 thing that will prevent a still further transfer of trade to the 

 Dutch colonies. This is shown conclusively by the fact that al- 

 though prices have risen several cents above those in Malaya 

 for similar grades, American buying still continues good. 



Observer. 



Boston, April 23, 1917. 



A PACIFIC MERCHANT FLEET. 



To THE Editor of The India Rubber World : 



r^E.'VR SIR — Every American of spirit welcomes the plan to 

 *-^ build 3,000 wooden cargo ships of 3,000 tons each, 1,000 of 

 them to be in service within 18 months. It does the heart good to 

 see activities about the old New England shipyards again, and to 

 know that many others are to be opened elsewhere. By such 

 means the "Stars and Stripes" will once more become a familiar 

 flag in the principal ports of the world, and this is quite as it 

 should be. These wooden makeshifts can later be replaced by 

 steel ships and, as The India Rubber World has repeatedly 

 asserted, the commerce of our great nation must never again be 

 allowed to depend upon foreign bottoms. 



A ship flying the American flag every three miles, and later 

 every mile, between America and England or France is indeed a 

 phophecy to stir the imagination, but are we not forgetting the 

 Pacific in our efforts virtually to bridge the Atlantic? Our duty 

 to provision, munition and otherwise supply neutrals and the 

 nations engaged in our common cause is plain, but to do so en- 

 tails the importation of great quantities of raw material, much 

 of which comes or might come to our Pacific coast. 



No thinking person doubts but that ruthless submarine warfare 

 will presently be extended to our Atlantic coast, so that unavoid- 

 able ship losses in the export of manufactures will make it essen- 

 tial to conserve tonnage in imports to the very maximum. The 

 increasing dependence of the United States upon the tropics for 

 raw materials and foodstuflts not produced in this country is 



shown by the enormous imports of tropical products during the 

 fiscal year 1916, amounting to $1,060,850,416, of which $304,000,000 

 was rubber. Much of this vast total comes from the East or 

 foreign Pacific ports, and during the war can be brought to San 

 Francisco or Seattle more safely than to Atlantic coast cities. 

 Moreover, high cargo and insurance rates and the losses by sub- 

 marine attack, certain to come, will render transcontinental 

 freights relatively less formidable. 



During 1916 about 80,000 tons of rubber, or 27 cargoes of 3,000 

 tons each, came from the East and had it become necessary might 

 have been entered at Pacific coast ports. Our exports to Middle 

 and Far East countries are constantly increasing, and Russian 

 events promise to render Vladivostock one of our great foreign 

 markets, so that there will be cargoes to go both ways. Amer- 

 ican consumers to-day are dependent upon British and Japanese 

 ships to bring rubber from Singapore. Colombo and Penang, via 

 Hong Kong, where it is transferred at a considerable loss of time 

 and labor. Submarine losses have reduced the British service, 

 and although a new service has been inaugurated by two Dutch 

 ships between Batavia and America, the situation is not greatly 

 relieved. Because of the lack of ships the cargo rate to America 

 from Hong Kong had early this year been increased from $24 to 

 $30 a ton. 



Let a goodly number of our proposed fleet of wooden merchant- 

 men be built in Pacific coast yards and put into service to the 

 Far East, that the American flag may become as familiar there 

 ais in the days when ships from New England seaport towns were 

 known the world around. 



A Rubber Importer. 



San Francisco, April 16. I917-. 



JUDICIAL DECISIONS. 



/CONSOLIDATED RUBBER TIRE CO. vs. The B. F. Good- 

 ^^ rich Co.; Consolidated Rubber Tire Co. vs. Republic Rub- 

 ber Co. These were suits in equity on exceptions to the report of 

 the master, brought before the District Court, N. D. Illinois, 

 E. D. It was held that the master's recommendation of five 

 cents a pound as a reasonable royalty should be approved ; 

 furthermore, according to precedent, the law read that a licensee 

 of part of the patent rights in a certain territory, or even in the 

 whole country, cannot sue in his own name. The decision was 

 that the reports of the master in each case should be approved, 

 and all objections and exceptions thereto overruled. [Federal 

 Reporter, Vol. 237, page 893.] 



UNITED STATES CUSTOMS DECISIONS. 



The United States Court of Customs Appeals, March 26, 1917, 

 rendered the following decision relating to raincoats in the case 

 of True Fit Waterproof Co. v. United States. Goods made by 

 cementing with rubber a cotton cloth to a cotton and wool cloth, 

 and goods made by cementing with rubber a cotton and silk cloth 

 to a cotton and wool cloth, the rubber in each case being neg- 

 ligible in value, are composed in chief value of cotton, wool, or 

 silk, according to which represents the greatest value as yarn, 

 plus its proportion, on the basis of quantity, of the cost of weav- 

 ing and other expenses incurred in making the cloth and bringing 

 it to the condition it had immediately prior to its combination 

 with the other materials in order to form the goods in question. 

 For this purpose that cloth which is composed in chief value of 

 one of these fibers should not be regarded as made entirely of it. 

 Raincoats made from such goods are dutiable under paragraphs 

 256, 266, or 291, given below, according to the material of chief 



