January 1, 1919.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



175 



Reg. United States Pat. Off. Reu. United Kingdom. 



Published on the 1st of each month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO. 



No. 25 West 45th Street. New York. 



Telephone — Bryant 2576. 



CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, F.R.G.S., Editor 



Vol. 59 



JANUARY I, 1 91 9. 



No. 4. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READINa 



(( 



Nmeteen-Nineteen. 



\U SI NESS as Usual t" Not a bit of it! This Year 

 of Our Lord, nozif that "Gott" has abdicated, 

 promises to be the biggest, best and happiest for genera- 

 tions. And the rubber tradef Just watch it grozv. 



B 



THE YEAR IN REVIEW. 



TO detail all of the notable and interesting happenings 

 in the rubber trade for the last twelve months is a 

 task that would seriously infringe the paper conservation 

 rules. A bird's-eye view, however, shows the industry 

 passing through lightning-like changes, from unpre- 

 paredness to readjustment, to contraction, to practical 

 stoppage except for war work, and then to reconstruc- 

 tion. 



Although in January a year ago, the industry was un- 

 prepared, individuals in the trade were already in the 

 thick of the fight. INIany adventurous and patriotic 

 young men were in service as volunteer soldiers, aviators 

 and ambulance drivers. Many "dollar a day" men were 

 holding down important positions in Washington as 

 organizers and experts. Industrial engineers, chemists 

 and mechanics, were already leaving rubber and filling 

 necessary places in war work plants. Then followed the 

 volunteers and the drafted men, from ofifice and factory 



all over the country, by thousands and by ten thousands. 

 No doubt the year will be known as a year of victory, but 

 it is much else. It was a year of conservation, in rub- 

 ber, coal, daylight, sulphur, gasoline, in almost every- 

 thing except air and water. Manufacturers conserved 

 labor and for the first time, woman became a great and 

 helpful factor in rubber-manufacturing plants. Con- 

 servation in the line of investment was not, however, 

 practiced. There were the four Liberty Loans, in each 

 of which the trade went over the top, rubber men sub- 

 scribing millions, promptly and generously. Then there 

 were the gifts to the Red Cross, to the War Workers, 

 to the French, Belgian, Armenian and other orphan 

 funds, not to forget the investment in Thrift Stamps and 

 War .Saving Certificates. 



With it all, through capable, hard working commit- 

 tees at home, rubber goods used in war work were 

 standardized and turned out in quantities never before 

 thought possible. New methods, new devices, and new 

 compounds were created over night. With the scrap- 

 ping of old methods, the dropping of "non-essentials" 

 and the putting of big plants on a war basis, there was 

 no disorganization. On the contrary the most wonder- 

 ful organization that any industry has ever seen was 

 created. To sum up — it was a good fight, cheerfully and 

 efficiently fought, and 1918 is a year of which the trade 

 may well be proud. 



THE VICTORY BANQUET. 



THE Annual Banquet of the Rubl^er Association of 

 America to be held on the evening of January 

 sixteenth, promises to be the most notable gathering that 

 the trade has ever seen. Never before has it been so 

 firmly knit in the bonds of successful efifort, friendship 

 and patriotism. Not again will there be available such 

 an array of speakers afire with vital facts and thrilling 

 anecdote. The times teem with problems of vast import. 

 It is not idle prophecy to predict that in the speeches will 

 be sounded the key-note of the great reconstruction that 

 is already well begun. 



AN ERA OF TRUSTS IN SIGHT. 



THAT Germany to win back her place in the sun, even 

 if it be under an umbrella of debt, will be and is 

 already organized into a series of trusts, is to be expected. 

 But that other European countries should be leaning 

 somewhat the same way is surprising. Leaning is too 

 mild, they are openly advocating amalgamations that will 

 give quantity production, and that, assisted by govern- 

 ment, will put them beyond the reach of ordinary coinpe- 

 tition. France and Italy are already planning extensive 

 reconstruction in manufactures assisted by their respec- 

 tive governments. But it is in Great Britain that the 

 promise of great trusts and amalgamations is noted. No 

 less an authority than the Right Honorable Sir Albert 

 Stanley, M. P., president of the British Board of Trade, 



