Sei'Tember 1, 1919.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



677 



United States Pat. Off. Reg. 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. 60. 



SEPTEMBER 1. 1919. 



No. 6. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



EUROPEAN ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION. 



THE European Governments have lost no time in 

 taking up thoroughly and scientifically the question 

 of economic reconstruction and are overlooking no op- 

 portunities to set on their feet the industries hardest hit 

 by the war. Before the war was over the German Gov- 

 ernment had started active measures to protect its whole- 

 sale trade after the war and it has already determined 

 to regulate that branch of commerce and industry per- 

 taining to te.xtile fibers, rubber and other articles. What 

 this regulation will consist of is not exactly apparent at 

 present, but it can safely be assumed it will be a super- 

 vision over the importation and distribution of the raw 

 materials so that the Teutonic manufacturers will be in 

 a position to compete on a basis of equality with those 

 of other countries. 



Despite the loathing for German methods bred by the 

 war. it is apparent the world must trade with the Ger- 

 man if for no other reason than to enable him to get the 

 wherewithal to pay his bills for indemnity and repara- 

 tion. Germany's financial situation is such that she must 

 have credit in order to obtain the raw materials for the 

 manufactured goods that will be sold back to the world 



she tried to despoil. What security can be offered is 

 problematical and remains to be seen. The prejudice 

 against "made in Germany" is undoubtedly deep, natural 

 and inevitable, but will probably prove to be not insur- 

 mountable, even in France and England, where it is 

 stronger than it is here. 



JAPANESE FOUNTAIN PENS— A FREE TRADE JOLT. 



THE j.MwxESE are now making fountain pens at a 

 cost of 2 cents each and shipping them into this 

 country, making their total cost with the Underwood 

 tariff duty of 25 per cent added, 2j4 cents apiece. If 

 the thrifty retail dealer sells them at 50 cents each, he 

 is making a very neat little return on his investment. 

 But we have not seen any 50-cent fountain pens that 

 we recall. Fountain pen manufacturers have seemed 

 indifferent to the tariff' duties that are collected upon 

 foreign products and also to the general policy of pro- 

 tection. Skilled Japanese workmen are making articles 

 of all kinds and receiving from 34 to 42 cents a day, 

 about one-tenth of what American workmen receive. 

 They are probably not as efficient as American workmen, 

 and their products may not be as good, but they will 

 be good enough to make a considerable dent in the 

 sales of our goods, if the same ratio is preserved as that 

 on fountain pens. If we find ourselves flooded with 

 cheap goods of all kinds in the next few months, bearing 

 the Nipponese stamp, our free trade friends may be 

 kept busy explaining — to manufacturers, workingmen 

 and consumers. 



FAKE RUBBER PROMOTER. 



U.<ni;K Ti'E .\i.i.iTER.\TivE TITLE of "Pirates of Promo- 

 tion," the "World's Work" has printed a list of the 

 leading fake stock company promoters, together with a« 

 list of several hundred of the companies which they have 

 floated in order to separate the American public from 

 its hard-earned savings and Liberty Bonds. While oil 

 and gold mining companies, of course, predominate, it 

 cannot be overlooked that the list contains a large number 

 of rubber concerns, plantation rubber companies, rubber 

 substitutes companies and the like. The names of the 

 promoters are some of them well known to the readers 

 of the daily newspapers, generally in connection with a 

 penitentiary sentence for use of the mails to defraud 

 or violations of the Blue-Sky laws. In the preamble to 

 this useful article the magazine states "that of all the oil 

 produced in Oklahoma in 1917, the stock promoting 

 companies had less than two-thousandths of one per cent. 

 For every $555 of capitalization only $1 worth of oil 

 was produced." Of the fourteen rubber concerns listed 

 there are no figures as to the pounds of rubber or the 

 value of the tires they have produced. It is perhaps 

 gratifying to know that of all the hundreds of rubber and 

 tire concerns there are in reality so few that are listed as 

 fakes. The parting warning of the "World's Work" 

 cannot be improved upon. 



