September 1. 1917.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



713 



Jelutong, or Pontianak, Is Crude Rubber and Duty Free. 



A CASE of much importance to importers and users of 

 Jelutong, or Pontianak, rubber was recently decided by 

 the United States General Appraisers. This rubber had 

 always been admitted free of duty until June, 1916, when the gov- 

 ernment suddenly assessed an import duty of 10 per cent on it as 

 a non-enumerated, unmanufactured article under the provisions 

 of paragraph 385 of the tariff act of 1913. L. Littlejohn & Co., 

 Inc., Xew York City, importer and dealer in crude rubber, pro- 

 tested, claiming that Jelutong was a crude rubber, and as such 

 entitled to free entry under paragraph 513. The decision re- 

 cently handed down sustains this protest. 



The case was tried on February 19, 20 and 21. The attorneys 

 for the importers were Thaddeus S. and Edward P. Sharretts, 

 the government being represented by Assistant U. S. Attorney- 

 General Hanson, with Robert Hardison as special counsel. 

 Frederick J. Maywald, the chemical expert, collaborated with 

 the attorneys in preparing the case, and some of the govern- 

 ment officials, as well as others interested in the case, declared 

 that it was one of the best presented and most completely pre- 

 pared cases which had ever been brought in the Customs Court. 

 A large number of witnesses, technical e.xperts and manufac- 

 turers, were called on the importers' side, and a great many 

 exhibits were introduced in evidence. 



The testimony on behalf of the importers covered three dis- 

 tinct lines, vis., first, the trade meaning of the term "India rubber" 

 as used in the Tariff Act; second, the trade classificaton of Jelu- 

 tong, or Pontianak, by importers and rubber manufacturers ; third, 

 the chemical and botanical identity of Jelutong as a rubber. 



John T. Callahan, president of the Archer Rubber Co., testi- 

 lied that there was no difference between rubber and india rub- 

 ber, which refers to all the various types and grades of crude 

 rubber among which is Jelutong. He stated that his company 

 liought Pontianak, or Jelutong, as a crude rubber and used it 

 as such ; that Jelutong was one of the various rubbers used in 

 its compounds, and that it was necessary to mix various rubbers 

 in order to obtain certain desired results. He said further that 

 his company never used Pontianak, or Jelutong, except as a crude 

 rubber, and knew of no other use for it ; that it was never used 

 as a filler. 



William E. Bruyn, treasurer of L. Littlejohn & Co., Inc., testi- 

 fied that his company bought and sold Jelutong purely as a crude 

 rubber, and that throughout his business experience of fifteen 

 years he had never purchased it, or knew of its being regarded 

 as other than a crude rubber. Similar statements were made by 

 Francis R. Henderson, of Henderson & Korn ; Thomas A. Des- 

 mond, of Robinson & Co., and G. A. Luddington, purchasing 

 agent of the Fisk and Federal rubber companies and formerly 

 an importer and dealer in crude rubber. 



Robert C. Hartong, chief compounding chemist of The Good- 

 year Tire & Rubber Co., said that Jelutong was used solely as a 

 rubber and as a necessary component of some of the compounds 

 prepared by his company. He illustrated this with samples, the 

 compounds being the same except that in one case Jelutong 

 was used in the mixture, while in the other case no Jelutong 

 was used. His testimony clearly established the fact that Jelu- 

 tong had definite qualities as a rubber, and that those qualities 

 in a rubber compound could be obtained only by the use of 

 Jelutong or a similar rubber. 



Ralph B. Naylor, chief compounding chemist of The Fisk 

 Rubber Co., Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, and James J. Clif- 

 ford, superintendent of manufacture of the Boston Woven Hose 

 & Rubber Co.. Cambridge, Massachusetts, also referred to the 

 necessity of using Pontianak, or Jelutong, as one of the rub- 



ber components of many different kinds of rubber compounds, 

 and said that they never used it for any other purpose than as 

 a rubber. Mr. Clifford also showed samples, using other lines 

 of goods than those produced by Mr. Hartong, the combined 

 exhibits including automobile tires, garden hose, rubber shoes, 

 etc. 



William G. Hopkins, purchasing agent of the Boston Woven 

 Hose & Rubber Co., stated that since 1905. when he became pur- 

 chasing agent, he had always bought Jelutong as a crude rub- 

 ber and had always regarded it as such. He said further that 

 it was carried in the inventories and stock sheets of his com- 

 pany with the other crude rubbers used. 



Julian A. Whitcomb was called as a botanist and expert in 

 the growing and preparation of crude rubbers. He illustrated 

 his testimony with sections of an Hevca tree and a Jelutong 

 tree. These trees, together with latices of trees of each of these 

 kinds, were imported from the East by L. Littlejohn & Co., 

 Inc. Mr. Whitcomb readily identified both trees, and proved by 

 illustrations of the appearance of the bark and wood, and in 

 other ways, that the trees were what they were stated to be. 

 He introduced samples of rubber which he had prepared by 

 coagulation of the latices from the two different trees, and 

 explained how these rubbers were prepared and how they could 

 be identified by their appearance. He further explained the 

 method of tapping and preparing Jelutong, Hevea, Caucho, 

 Landolphia and other rubbers in their native places, as he had 

 explored and traveled extensively in the Far East, in Africa, 

 Mexico, Central and South America, and also explained the 

 various kinds of Jelutong trees, describing the differences be- 

 tween them, their habitats, their growth, and the method of 

 preparation of the rubber from the latices. Pontianak, he ex- 

 plained, is another term for Jelutong, the name under which 

 the commodity in question had been invoiced ; that the word 

 "Jelutong" is derived from the plant from which this rubber 

 comes, and that the word "Pontianak" is the name of a town 

 and district in Borneo from which it is procured, an identical 

 product being imported from British North Borneo and Suma- 

 tra. Roger S. Hardy, another expert, corroborated this testi- 

 mony. 



Frederick J. Maywald then testified as to the chemical identity 

 of Jelutong and other rubbers, stating that rubber is the only 

 material that has both plasticity and elasticity and that Jelutong 

 combines both qualities. He explained the method of com- 

 pounding and curing rubbers, described the differences between 

 various rubbers as to physical qualities, curing time and other 

 characteristics, and told of the qualities imparted by various 

 rubbers to certain compounds. He said that he had an ex- 

 perimental plant and had made a large number of samples of 

 various kinds. Many of these samples were introduced in evi- 

 dence. He showed samples of both wild and plantation rub- 

 ber from practically every well-known rubber family. He 

 showed samples compounded with these various rubbers, and 

 explained the various times of cure and proportions of sulphur 

 necessary to bring about the same cure with different rubbers, 

 clearly showing that hardly any two rubbers were identical in 

 their characteristics. He also testified as to Jelutong being re- 

 garded, both in the trade and in the literature, as a crude rub- 

 ber, and mentioned particularly Circular 38 of the Bureau of 

 Standards, Department of Commerce, in which Jelutong is 

 classified as one of a number of rubbers. The witness intro- 

 duced samples of crude washed and dried rubbers, and some 

 rubbers which had been deresinated, thus showing that the basic 

 component in each case was caoutchouc or rubber gum, and 

 that all were substantially identical. He said further that all 



