Mav 1. 1919.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



407 



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



Vol. 60. 



MAY 1, 1919. 



No. 2. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



The Victory Loan. 



\TOT a ragged finish, nor even a grandstand finish, but 

 2 V a strong, clean finish, is both duty and privilege. 

 On the part of the rubber industry we confidently pre- 

 dict it. 



THE NEW HIGH-PRICE LEVEL. 



■"PHE HALT in production, the slowing of industr} , 

 ■*■ tlie unemployment of labor, complaints of which are 

 to be heard from many quarters, in the belief of experts 

 are due to but one thing, the general opinion that prices 

 must drop. No less an authority than Irving Fisher, 

 professor of political economy of Yale University, points 

 out that we are threatened with a widespread business 

 depression, notwithstanding the unsound conditions usu- 

 ally preceding such depression are absent. 



People cannot forget the prices existing "before the 

 war,'" holding to the opinion that these are "normal.'" 

 This attitude is putting the brakes upon business every- 

 where. But those who are waiting for prices to come 

 down are not putting their own prices down. Neither 

 is anybody else. Professor Fisher declares : 



"Business men should face the facts. To talk rever- 

 ently of 1913-14 prices is to speak in a dead language 



to-day. Tlie buyers of the country, since the armistice, 

 have made an unexampled attack upon prices through 

 their waiting attitude, and yet price recessions have been 

 insignificant. The reason is that we are on a new high- 

 price level, which will be found a stubborn reality. 

 Business men are going to find out that the clever man 

 is not the man who waits, but the one who finds out the 

 new price facts and acts accordingly." 



TRADE AND INTERNATIONALIZATION. 



THE PLAN which is being worked out at the peace 

 conference for the disposition and future govern- 

 ment of the German colonies possesses great possibilities 

 for the business world in general and the United States 

 in particular. Under the system of mandatory govern- 

 ment sponsored by President Wilson and now looked 

 upon with favor by most of the governments of the 

 entente, it is apparent that there will be an equal oppor- 

 tunity for trade for all nations, whereas, had the colonies 

 been apportioned among the several powers, it is quite 

 probable that there would have been a tendency for the 

 government most interested to hold the trade of its own 

 particular colon}- for itself exclusive of the claims of 

 others. 



Under the mandatory plan each territory, while nomi- 

 nally responsible to a certain one of the powers to be 

 designated when the most equitable method is agreed 

 upon, will be given a freedom which is almost equivalent 

 to self-government. The former German colony once 

 emancipated from the stifling influences of Kultur, is 

 quite likely to establish trade channels of its own, and 

 will be under no obligation to confine its commerce to 

 its sponsor government. As long as Germany had its 

 clutches on Kiao-chau,a valuable territory in China prac- 

 tically the size of Illinois, the chances for any except a 

 German business house to transact any business there 

 were small indeed. And the opportunity for fair com- 

 petition in trade would not have been much better, had 

 the colony Kiao-chau been awarded to Japan. Enter- 

 prising American firms should have no difficulty in se- 

 curing their share of the trade of the former German 

 colonies, if the plans of the far-seeing American Presi- 

 dent are carried through. 



Furthermore, suppose in the general apportionment 

 of the colonies Germany were given an opportunity to 

 exercise mandatory power over one or more of them, as 

 a result of the display of a proper spirit of cooperation, 

 and an abandonment of her old ruthless, monopolistic 

 spirit toward those she considered her subjects. If she 

 were then able to keep up her commercial gait under a 

 free and open competition with other nations, it might 

 instil in the minds of her business men principles of re- 

 spect for others which they have never had before. And 

 should Germany find herself outdistanced in the scramble 

 for trade, it might justly be taken as an indication that 

 the business acumen with which she w^as formerly 

 credited was somewhat exaggerated. 



