THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1914. 



0I3 by German firms and sold at prices enormously in 

 ess of cost and ordinary profit. 



Manufacturers are just now inclined to hold back for 

 assurances that if they put large capital into a new enter- 

 prise this capital will nut be rendered valueless by an 

 early peace and a restoration of the blocking patent. It 

 is likely thai these assurances will be given. In the mean- 

 time, the vast and well-oiled machinery of the British 

 Consular Service will be working in every quarter of the 

 globe in .1 way which can scarcely fail to be of as great 

 damage to the German material interest as that being 

 waged !>\ the armed hosts now on the battle fields of 

 Europe. 



SHIPPING LATEX TO LONDON. 



T3 EPORTS which apparentl) emanate from London 

 have recentl) come across the water to the effect 

 that a group of English capitalists, having secured from 

 an inventor a secret process for treating latex, intend to 

 ship it direct front the plantations to England and con- 

 vert it into rubber by this new process. All of which is 

 interesting, but hardly likely to occur. 



In the first [dace, the shipping of latex to London, 

 New- York and other points quite distant from the place 

 of gathering is no novelty. To be sure it never has 

 been shipped in large quantities, for there has been no 

 on to make such shipments, but wherever any quan- 

 tity of latex has been desired for purposes of experi- 

 ment or exhibit 11 m it has been found possible to ship it 

 without having its qualities noticeably affected during 

 transportation. And in the second place, there would be 

 no advantage in shipping latex in bulk to a considerable 

 distance from the plantation, for any process capable of 

 converting latex into rubber in London would be cap- 

 able of bringing about the same result on the plantation 

 or in the forest. 



figures, the exports of manufactured goods recently 

 amounted to about two thousand million dollars a yeai 

 for Great Britain, fifteen hundred million for Germany 

 and seven hundred million for the United States — the 

 exports of the latter being largely of a sort in which 

 cost of raw material is the chief factor and not the 

 "added value," winch makes export trade profitable t< 1 

 the exporting nations, fiance has hitherto exported 

 rather more manufactures than the United States, 

 while Austria la-s behind with less than half as much, 

 or about $250,000,000. This is quite a tidy bit of trade, 

 however, and it is prostrate along with that of Ger- 

 man). A feature of great interest is the fact that fully 

 ten per cent, of the great German export trade found a 

 market in the British Empire. This trade is not read- 

 ily going to Germany after the close of the war. In 

 the British Colonies, in Spanish America and in the 

 Far East there are rich markets waiting for somebody 

 — markets which Germany supplied but can do so no 

 more. 



These statistics of German rubber manufacture arc- 

 Mi special interest to readers of this magazine. 



AT ANY RATE IT IS FINE FOR GUAYULE. 



GERMANY'S VAST MANUFACTURES. 



THE mighty conflict in Europe has put the Mexican 

 situation very much in the background, but the 

 turbulent little republic still goes on its merry revolu- 

 tionary way. But in all this gratuitous — one might al- 

 most say grotesque — loss of life and property, the 

 humble guayule shrub is deriving a distinct benefit, for 

 it is getting a much needed rest. Three years ago, when 

 the factories were busily extracting its rubber con- 

 tent, it appeared to be approaching a condition of prac- 

 tical extinction, but since the overthrow of the Madero 

 regime the guayule shrub is about the only thing in 

 .Mexico that has been left undisturbed: It needed the 

 rest badly and has used it to great advantage. When 

 the Mexicans get tired out with shooting one another, 

 as they will some day, and settle dow : n for a brief period 

 of tranquility, guayule should once more be an interest- 

 ing feature of the rubber market. 



' I 'lib. stupendous German manufacturing trade 

 which on the day that Emperor William handed 

 his passports to the British Ambassador passed into 

 the things that were, lias a more than academic interest 

 to a country like ours, which ranks fourth in manufac- 

 tured exports among the nations of the world. Some 

 day, we ma\ be sure, Germany will again be one ol 

 the great exporting countries. Rut at the present time 

 she may be considered as completely eliminated from 

 the field of internatii >na1 immerce. Speaking in n mnd 



There ake four lines of rubber manufactures in 

 which the Germans took the lead: Rubber Toys, Hard 

 Rubber, Ocean < ables and Asbestos and Rubber Pack- 

 ings. With their export impossible and the factories idle, 

 the opportunity for American and English rubber manu- 

 facturers is obvious. 



Tires ark contraband because they are a tart 

 of military equipment. Why not because they are ex- 

 plosives? 



