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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April 1, 1919. 



The "Common Green," which Professor Hall describes as the 

 "most interesting" which he has investigated, grows 7 feel high 

 and an illustration of it accompanies this article. The specimen 

 was taken from the north side of Mono Lake, Mono County, 

 California. The rubber from it is said to be a little better 

 than that from guayule. Another variety of rubber plant is the 

 Erkameria, or "dwarf rabbit bush." It is very small and grows 

 sparsely in rocky places. Its rubber content is 10 per cent, 

 but the product is very short and very resinous. 



Tlic investigation now nearly concluded is certain to bring 



up the subject of utilizing the great waste lands of the Sierras 

 in the cultivatioh of these:.rubber producers. Tliesc lands are 

 available and cheap, and need no irrigation. That the rubber 

 is there is demonstrated, and undoubtedly other experiments 

 are under way in greatly separated parts of the United States to 

 demonstrate whether this supply cannot be utilized by stimulating 

 the growth of these plants and demonstrating its commercial 

 liossibilities. The forthcoming report will be treated at length in 

 Till': lNni.\ Rubber World and should be of the greatest interest 

 i(] the whole rubber trade. 



What Won the War? 



ARMAMEXT makers, ship bililders, e.xplosive manufacturers, 

 airplane and balloon constructors, naturally consider their 

 own individual products as vital factors in the victory of 

 the Allies. 



Sidney Neu, of the great Wcstinghouse companies, however, 

 claims that electricity won the war. Though it was not in 

 evidence he argues that were it not for man's control of this 

 subtle fluid there would have been no victory. 



Developing the argument, he says : 



Think back to the gunsmith of a centuiy ago. Could he have 

 armed an army of four million men in eighteen months' With 

 four million men withdrawn from production, could :ni\ arniy 

 have been equipped? Electrically driven macliiiM t.i^d iiiad'- pos- 

 sible what human sweat and muscle, never could liaxc accom- 

 plished. 



Unheard of tons of steel have been rc(iuircd, and those best 

 able to judge have said that without electric drive to speed 

 production in the mills we should have fallen short. 



Uniforins were needed to clothe the men who fought. They 

 could not go naked while weavers leisurely wove the cloth, 

 cutters shaped it, and tailors sat cross-legged slowly stitching 

 seams. Electricity was called on to do these things with speed, 

 and the uniforms were made— breeches, shirts, leggings, shoes, 

 underwear, hats, belts, millions of them. 



The chemicals that speeded the shells on their way, that burst 

 the shells to fragments, that made the very air untenable for 

 the foe, owed their production in the tremendous quantities re- 

 quired to electricity. Electrochemical processes fashioned some, 

 electric drive furnished the controllable mechanical power for 

 making others. 



The Army and the nation needed food and electricity produced 

 it. Fertilizers produced by electrochemical means made the earth 

 productive, electric drive threshed much of the wheat, prepared 

 the meat, operated the packing plants, ground the flour, entered 

 everywhere into the production of food to make human labor 

 less and to release more men to carry fear to the hearts of 

 barbarians. 



In its gentler aspects electricity appeared even on the field of 

 battle, guiding armies, battalions, even individual shells. The 

 airman by his wireless telephone and telegraph guided the 

 gunner far in the rear who would otherwise have been blind. 

 The commander watched through his wire and wireless network 

 the progress of his fighting units miles away, kept them corre- 

 lated into one vast machine that acted as a whole, not as a multi- 

 tude of unrelated parts. 



Billions of billions of electric sparks daily ignited the cylinder 

 charges of motor trucks, lorries, airplanes, motor cars, motor- 

 cycles and the victorious tanks. Without electricity for ignition 

 these engines would have been unheard of. 



Electricity enabled the ships at sea, with their precious freight 

 of American manhood, to keep each other in touch, to avoid 

 the hidden dangers that menaced, to signal back as each arrived, 

 "We're here, and safe!" 



The ships themselves — did not electricity produce them? Their 

 plates were rolled and shaped and machined in electrically driven 

 machinery. Electric cranes transported their parts, electric com- 

 pressors furnished the power behind the busy riveters. 



Speed won the war when it was won and saved millions of 

 human lives and untold additional human suffering — America's 

 speed. The world marvels' at America's speed and even America 

 marvels. America was capable of this unheard of speed because 

 America has made electricity its servant. Many men have been 

 needed to accomplish what has been done in preparation, but at 

 least twice and probably three times as many men would have 

 heen needed had not electricity been ready to help; and there 

 w as U' it llial m.'iuy men. 



LI. ctiic liulu in hattlcfield searchlights patrolled the sky and 

 No -Man'.-. 1 .hmI. juaiding against surprise. At home protective 

 electric lii:liiiiij i!i ]Hii,cd with many human guards who thus 

 could lend ili' ii liaiid. to much-needed production. Within the 

 busy plant- men w.iikcd through the long hours of night as 

 swiftly as li.\- d;i>. liccause electric illumination was at hand. 



So short «as tin- man-power that even with electricity's help 

 women were required to lend their aid in making ready our 

 fighters' equipment. Without electricity women's help would 

 have been but feeble. It is because electric drive tames rough 

 forces and makes cumbersome machinery so simple to manip- 

 ulate that it was possible for women to do what only men had 

 done before. Work with machinery had been considered man's 

 exclusive sphere because it had been rough work, heavy work. 

 Electricity has made it such light work that it no longer fatigues 

 the frailer sc.k. 



Nor is this alone electricity's part in putting women at the 

 lathe, the punch-press and the planer. It has simplified the home 

 so that she can be spared. We forget the duties that women 

 formerly had in the home. She was spinner and weaver and 

 tailor, she was laundress and housemaid, baker and cook, milk- 

 maid and charwoman. Electrical machinery and electrical trans- 

 portation have taken many of these duties out of the home. 

 Those that are left, washing, ironing, sweeping, cooking and 

 sewing, electricity has so lightened that women have been 

 able to take their part in saving the world for those that dwell 

 in it. Where many women were needed in the "good old days" 

 to keep one household running smoothly, one alone now finds 

 time to spare. 



Trace back to its source any thing or factor that has helped 

 to end the struggle, and electricity is found, not once but many 

 times to have touched it and hastened it on to consummation. 

 Truly, electricity has won the war, electricity guided by Amer- 

 ican brains, led on by American energy, crowned by American 

 valor. 



In every instance, however, electricity was walled in, concen- 

 trated, guided, held in check, rendered efficient, made safe by 

 rubber. In the last analysis, therefore, india rubber won the 

 war ! 



