180 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



I January 1, 1915. 



hands manufactured at a high cost. In this case a deplor- 

 able condition would arise and it might be necessary to 

 seek the aid of Congress to place a temporary embargo 

 on crude rubber and rubber products from Great Britain, 

 so that American manufacturers might know where they 

 stand and be protected against incalculable loss. 



It is very much to be hoped that Great Britain will 

 realize the injustice which is being done to American 

 rubber manufacturers, particularly as these manufactur- 

 ers and the rubber importers are undoubtedly willing to 

 give a guaranty that the) will not export to her enemies 

 rubber or such manufactured articles as may be declared 

 contraband of war." 



THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 25 YEARS AGO AND NOW. 



THIS is not a history of the growth of the rubber 

 industry in the United States for the last 25 

 vears. A book of 1,000 pages written by a master of 

 condensation would not contain the story, for no 

 other American industry has made such strides in the 

 last quarter century. 



These few paragraphs can only hope to project 

 some of the most striking features in that develop- 

 ment and to show the contrast between the rubber 

 trade in 1889, when this publication first appeared, 

 and at the present time. During these 25 years the 

 rubber industry of the United States has increased 

 tenfold in its capitalization, fourfold in the value of 

 the manufactured product, fourfold in the number 

 of employes and sixfold in volume of its exports. In 

 1889 the total capitalization of the rubber manufac- 

 turing companies in the United States was about 

 $40,000,000; the consumption of rubber amounted to 

 16,000 tons ; the number of people employed was 

 20,000, and the value of manufactured product $60,000,- 

 000. Now, the capitalization is about $400,000,000 ; the 

 annual consumption of crude rubber amounts to 

 50,000 tons ; the number of people employed exceeds 

 80,000, and the value of the finished product is in the 

 neighborhood of $240,000,000. 



But in surveying the last two and a half decades of 

 the American rubber industry, the most striking fea- 

 ture is not this great general growth, but rather the 

 entrance into the field and the rapid development of 

 ral new factors entirely unknown 25 years ago 

 but which today are of commanding importance. 



First there is the automobile tire, which now uses 

 fully one-half of the rubber supply of the world; 



winch consumes more crude rubber today than the 

 whole world produced 25 years ago; which is made 

 and consumed to the number of 9,000,000 a year in the 

 United States alone, with a value of $125,000,000. And 

 yet when the first issue of The Im>ia Rubber World 

 was published there was not an automobile tire in 

 existence. There were bicycle tires, and they were 

 made in fairly large numbers, for the bicycle fever was 

 then Hearing its height, but there was no auto, tire, 

 because there was no automobile. 



There was then no manufacture of aeroplane or diri- 

 gible fabric, and the balloon as a practical utility was un- 

 dreamed of. The construction of balloons and aeroplanes 

 is not yet an extensive industry in the United States, 

 but across the sea great advancement has been made, 

 especially in Germany-, whose military achievements 

 have been much assisted by these overhead scouts. 



Another marked development that has taken place 

 during the last 25 years has been the advent of the 

 great corporation. In 1889 there was hardly a com- 

 pany engaged in rubber manufacture in this country 

 that was capitalized at over $1,000,000. Now there are 

 four companies alone whose combined outstanding 

 capital is over $200,000,000. 



But the most important development of the quarter 

 century just past is not in the direction of manufac- 

 tures or finance, but in the direction of the crude 

 supply. — in the development of the rubber plantation. 

 If the trade were still dependent on the wild product 

 of the South American and African forests, rubber 

 manufacture would only have reached half its present 

 proportions, for it would have only half its pres- 

 ent supply of material. In 1889 the output of the 

 Amazon country was about 16,000 tons ; in 1914 it was 

 40,000 tons, but constituted only 40 per cent, of the 

 world's supply. To be sure, under the stimulus of the 

 higher prices that would have accompanied a restricted 

 supply, wild rubber regions would have been more 

 exhaustively exploited, but they could not have pos- 

 sibly yielded a total equal to the "0,000 tons which the 

 plantations will be easily capable of producing during 

 the present year. With the success of the plantation 

 now overwhelmingly demonstrated, there is positive 

 assurance — or as positive as any human assurance can 

 be — that, no matter what demands the trade may 

 make in the future, the supply will always suffice. 



Accordingly, of all the developments of the last 25 

 years in the rubber industry, the plantation, with its as- 

 surance of perennial plenty, is far the greatest. 



