October 1, 1918.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



3rd. The American rubber industry is straining every 

 nerve to win the war. Its best plants are already on 

 war work ; its best men are in war work, thousands of 

 its young men are in the Army. It is giving up time, 

 money and effort to the limit and gladly. 



4th. The record of the American rubber trade in its 

 crude rubber dealings is unsurpassed for unfaltering 

 fairness. At the beginning of the war England declared 

 an embargo on crude rubber to keep it from the Central 

 Powers. The American rubber trade through the Rub- 

 ber Association agreed to buy only for its own uses and 

 the embargo was lifted. The Association through its 

 committees, its information service, and its legal ad- 

 visers, saw to it that this agreement was kept to the 

 letter. It involved the expenditure of thousands of dol- 

 lars, the fighting of law suits instituted by Germans, 

 and unremitting watchfulness. The result was that in 

 spite of Teutonic money and ingenuity, so little rubber 

 got away that figured in percentages it would be in the 

 hundredths of one per cent. America did it for her own 

 manufacturers, but it accrued to the signal advantage 

 of the British planters at a time when the German and 

 the Austrian market was closed to them. 



In conclusion, "Truth" says : 



"If there is to be a fight for control, by all means let 

 the share-holder be told. He will play his part willingly 

 and ungrudgingly, and so far from shrinking from the 

 struggle I shall be surprised if he does not enjoy it." 



Less than one per cent of the purchasers of plantation 

 rubber in the United States have any financial interest 

 in plantations in British possessions. Rubber shares are 

 not listed or known in the United States. Of the rubber 

 manufacturers in America 99 per cent do not know 

 whether "Batu Caves" and "Vallanibrosa" are tropical 

 diseases or African lakes. Speaking of attempts at con- 

 trol when a resident of Shanghai approached American 

 rubber interests with a project to corral the shares of all 

 of the plantation companies registered there, he received 

 not the slightest encouragement. It did not interest 

 them, nor does the control of any set of plantations 

 interest the American. 



We realize fully that the rubber planting industry in 

 the Far East is the favorite child of the British Empire.. 

 In the beginning, planting methods, "wound response," 

 tapping and coagulating, were all discovered and de- 

 veloped by government experts. As the industry grew 

 it was watched, guarded, disease fought, and assistance 

 given, to a degree hitherto unknown in agriculture. 

 Moreover taxes on the rubber produced were kept very 

 low, so low that the world wondered. The growth of 

 the planting interest was largely due to the tremendous 

 development of the motor industry, and America became 

 by far the largest customer. For years rubber that cost 

 the planter 25 cents a pound was sold to the manufac- 

 turer never below $1 and for a time for more than S2 

 a pound, showing profits of 300 to 600 per cent. 



The actual owners of the great and profitable planta- 



tions are the shareholders found in all walks in English 

 life. That Americans for a moment thought of trying 

 to dispossess them is a statement wholly without basis 

 of fact and conies from those who are friends neither 

 of the American manufacturer nor the British share- 

 holder. It is to the distinct advantage of the American 

 rubber trade to keep the 'plantation industry of the Far 

 East in its present capable hands, and it stands ready 

 to do whatever lies in its power to help to that end. 



The financial end of planting from the beginning 

 rested primarily and chiefly in London. Here a host 

 of promoters launched planting projects, bought and 

 sold rubber shares, and made much money. These 

 men were the objectors when a few, a very few, Ameri- 

 cans purchased plantations of their own. They alone 

 fostered the alarm concerning the "American invasion." 

 They also were the objectors to direct buying, say be- 

 tween Singapore and New York, simply because their 

 London commission was thus cut off. From them came 

 floods of suggestions for curtailing plantation produc- 

 tion, for the purchase of surplus stocks, for valorization, 

 for working agreements with Brazilian exporters, all 

 to keep shares abnormally high. Not for one moment 

 did they consider the interests of their big customers or 

 attempt to insure the future of the planter by giving such 

 advantages that it would profit the buyer to remain a 

 customer for all time. They took everything, gave 

 nothing. They are the friends and protectors of none. 

 During the "rubber craze" they unloaded barren prop- 

 erties, as "Filisola," on English widows and orphans 

 without qualm. 



The recent attack upon Americans in the London 

 papers emanates, not from the planter in the East, nor 

 from the British rubber trade, but from this financial 

 set. It is designed to bolster prices of rubber shares, and 

 is indifferent to facts, and callous as to its effect upon 

 American or English feeling, or to the joy it will give 

 the Germans. 



That reputable English journals should publish its 

 untruthful screeds, and practically stand sponsor for 

 them, is incomprehensible. 



The two, three, and perhaps nine-hole golf courses 

 that may be installed in the rear of the American Army 

 on the Western Front promise to be the sportiest in 

 the world. What with shell craters, ruined villages, 

 barbed wire bunkers and various other Hun hazards, 

 real golfers will have the time of their lives. A golf 

 ball with iron cross markings would be hit with great 

 accuracy and vigor. 



Thi: Akron Rubber Workers' Oath of Allegiance. 

 I will stick to my job and do an honest day's work 

 every day for the duration of the war. So help me God. 

 The Bristol Rubber Rioters' Oath of Allegiance. 

 I will throw up my job or do a dishonest day's work 

 every day for the duration of the war. So help me 

 Gott'. 



