120 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



IOkikmiikk 1, 1918. 



ation" as relating to nations big and little may possibly 

 belong also to corporations and to individuals. Then 

 manufacturers and shipowners could give employment 

 to whom they chose and workmen would be free to 

 join unions or not without interference. 



The rubber trade pays big freights on crude rubber, 

 compounding ingredients and manufactured goods. 

 Before the war German ocean lines delivered goods to 

 certain markets at prices none could compete with be- 

 cause of governmental subsidies. Possibly the "free- 

 dom of the seas" contemplates a fair adjustment of rates 

 that will do away with this evil. 



Standardization as a result of the war necessity has 

 made marvelous progress. Perhaps peace will demand 

 international standardization. If this is toward the 

 world's rubber trade it has much work before it, for in 

 many lines it will be revolutionary. 



Brazilian rubber producers, together with English, 

 American, Dutch, French, Japanese and Belgian rubber 

 planters, would have an unexampled opportunity to ar- 

 range for fair and adequate supply, standard grades, 

 and perhaps come to some understanding as to minimum 

 and maximum prices and restrictions of product. 



German methods wherever they affect the rubber 

 trade, the counterfeiting of trade-marks, the theft of 

 patents, the sale of products at prices below cost, forced 

 contracts with neutrals whereby German goods only 

 shall be purchased for a period of years after the war, 

 and plans of German manufacturers and exporters to 

 use Swiss and other neutral registration for German 

 goods, could easily be balked by an international com- 

 mittee. 



Moreover, the international trade rivalries, misunder- 

 standings and jealousies that are sure to crop up may be 

 done away with through personal contact. America is 

 coming out of the war the richest of all the nations in- 

 volved. Nations rich and poor owe her billions. It is 

 a dangerous position for any nation to be in. That is 

 why the rubber and other trades should affiliate closely 

 with their confreres the world over, and keep alive the 

 spirit of friendship which the war has brought about. 



PLANNING THE WORLD'S TRADE. 



BOOM IN RUBBER TO COME. 



A TREMENDOUS expansion in American industry 

 is sure to come, once peace is here and the problems 

 of reconstruction settled upon. America's part in feeding 

 the world assures prosperity for the farmer. Stocks in 

 the hands of the wholesalers and retailers are small. Thus 

 our domestic market will call for rubber goods as never 

 before. Moreover, the shops of Europe are empty. 

 Belgium, France, and indeed all of the Allies are short 

 of goods. Then, too, Germany, Austria-Hungary with 

 its new republics, Turkey and Russia, are sure to be in 

 the market ere long. Great although the American rub- 

 ber trade is, its capacity is likely to be tested to the utter- 

 most. 



Till-". Teuton prc-w^ar policy of industrial penetration 

 was successful in enabling Germany to obtain an 

 exceedingly dangerous hold on the chemical, dye, and 

 other .American Industries ; on the .Australian zinc indus- 

 try ; in securing a practical monopoly of wolfram, mang- 

 anese ore, copra, oil seed, and practical control of the 

 French bauxite mines. These are but a few of the in- 

 stances of the burrcvwing methods that resulted in a 

 stream of valuable imports pouring into Germany, and 

 leaving again in a manufactured form to deluge the world. 

 In 1913 the total imports amounted to almost sevent>'- 

 three million tons, valued at some $2,750,000,000. 



To-day Germany, staggering under huge debts, in 

 spite of revolution, and facing a bitterly hostile world, 

 still hopes for world domination. The great industries 

 are, to be sure, for the moment, paralyzed. Even before 

 the armistice few rubber plants operated, four-fifths of 

 the textile factories were idle, while no less than one- 

 third of the small plants had been closed. The merchant 

 marine, too, was in sorry plight, two-thirds of the ves- 

 sels seized or locked in neutral harbors, which more than 

 ofTset the trade in the Baltic. 



In addition to all this, German manufacturers are 

 faced with grave labor problems. The demands of war, 

 continually depleting their working forces, caused va- 

 cancies which were but partly filled, and even then by 

 persons not only inferior in skill but also in general health. 

 As for the returning soldiers it is doubtful if they will 

 be the obedient bond-slaves they were prior to 1914. 

 These adverse circumstances, however, have whipped 

 the industrialists to unheard of endeavor. 



A German union of technical and scientific societies 

 aims at a closer cooperation between science and indus- 

 try ; there still remain the many consolidations in nearly 

 all industries ; there also is the ministry of economic 

 affairs to reestablish foreign trade ; the Eastern Terri- 

 tories Neo-German Economic Society ; the association 

 for the promotion of the export of German goods under 

 guise of neutral products, and the huge combine to ex- 

 ploit various industries in foreign countries. 



All of this is known to the Allies and there has been 

 a general overhauling of pre-war trade tactics and a de- 

 mand for protection of home industries. 



France has decided to recast all old trade compacts 

 and from .April, 1919, will do business on equal terms. 

 Her chemists and industrial leaders have joined forces 

 to restore and enhance her commercial prosperity. 



England is instituting a comprehensive system for 

 inventorying the wealth of her colonies, with plans to 

 make herself and them independent of foreign countries 

 for any article raw or manufactured. 



In America the work of building up new industries to 

 provide goods formerly supplied by Germany has gone 

 on apace. Much thought and labor is also being ex- 

 pended on the task of retaining and expanding the busi- 



