184 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1. 1915. 



The enterprising and courteous founders 



and heads of the .meat German rubber fac- 

 tories are' men known the world over — 

 Seli'ginan, Prinzhorn and Dr. Gerlach of 

 the Continental; Hoff of the Harburg-Wein; 

 Clouth of Cologne-Nippes ; Calmon of Ham- 

 burg; Spannagel of Berlin; Sierke of the 

 Gumrhi-Kamm ; not to forget the scholarly 

 Dr. Traun, and many others. 



The German accomplishments in hard rub- 

 ber have been wonderful. This is true not 

 only in the production of technical articles 

 that have found a market all over the world, 

 but in the most difficult art work. For ex- 

 ample, there is the beautiful 6 foot statue 

 of Arminius, prince of the Cherusci, after 

 his victorj over the Roman legions under 

 Varus. This statue was modeled by Engel- 

 hard, of Hannover, molded in hard rubber, 

 in one piece, at the Traun factory at Ham 

 burg. 



In addition to the importation and manu- 

 facture of rubber, Germany has taken a deep 

 interest in developing rubber producing 

 sources in its various protectorates, namely 

 — German East Africa, German Southeast 

 Africa. Cameroon and Togo. The receipts 

 of rubber from these four foreign pos 

 sions have quite steadily increased during 

 the last eight years. In 1908 they equaled 

 1,341 tons; the following year 1,645 tons; in 

 1910 2,566 tons, and in 1913, 4,000 tons. 



To be sure, last year rubber manufactur- 

 ing in Germany, in common with the in- 

 dustry elsewhere, suffered Something of a 

 rcces^i. in in its output and its profits, owing 

 to the general conditions that obtained all 

 over the commercial world. But had \i hot 

 been for the war, that situation woulr] un- 

 doubtedly have been' but temporary. With the breaking out of Germany had stored away any large supply of crude rubber. 

 hostilities, however, the German industry received a staggering That i- shown by the fact that over one-third of the crude rub- 

 blow. Under the circumstances it is naturally difficult to get ber imported into Germany in 1913 was exported during the year, 

 detailed information as to industrial conditions in the Kaiser's The probability is that the supply in stock on the first of August was 



' not greatly 



Statue of ArminIus, Made of Hard 

 • Rubber. 



pire to show that, as one would naturally ex- 

 pect, the only rubber factories running on full 

 time and with large order; ahead are 

 those working for the military equipment 

 of the German army, making tires for 

 the army autos., balloon fabrics, cables, 

 footwear and clothing for the soldiers, rubber 

 sheets which they may interpose between 

 themselves and the damp ground when they 

 lie down at night, and other necessary kinds 

 of equipment for the men in the field. Natu- 

 rally, the consumption of rubber goods by 

 those not engaged at the front has fallen 

 off tremendously. The manufacture of 

 what might be termed the unnecessaries — 



that is, sporting g Is, balls, toys, and all 



articles coming Under the general classifica- 

 tion of luxuries — has been stopped abso- 

 lutely. The sale of tires has practically 

 been taken over by the government. Private 

 users are not permitted to purchase any tires 

 which are good enough for military use. In 

 fact the whole rubber manufacture of Ger- 

 many is under government supervision, and 

 the chemists and workmen necessary to 

 carry out the government orders in rubber 

 factories have, wherever possible, been ex- 

 empt from military duty. But in other fac- 

 tories, whose output is not so essential for 

 the operations at the front, the roster of 

 workmen has been, of course, greatly de- 

 pleted, so that inadaquacy of help and ex- 

 treme difficulty in securing transportation 

 are two of the many burdens that the Ger- 

 man rubber trade has to bear. 



But the one paramount question with the 

 German rubber mills is not so much a mar- 

 ket for their finished goods as a supply of 

 the crude material. It is not likely that 



empire. Not only 

 is every news 

 channel officially 

 guarded, but pri- 

 vate letters re- 

 ceived from Ger- 

 man manufactur- 

 ers seek to con- 

 vey such an im- 

 pression of fairly 

 normal and 

 healthful condi- 

 that one 

 cannot help feel- 

 ing that patriot- 

 ism supplies a 

 color to the pic- 

 ture that accu- 

 racy would not 

 warrant. 



Enotigh infor- 

 mation, however, 

 that has come 

 through the bar- 

 riers that sur- 

 round that Em- 



Sundries' Department in German Rubber Factory. 



in 



excess of the 

 supply a year 

 ago. While the 

 Kaiser's military 

 experts no doubt 

 believed that a 

 war was on its 

 way, they confi- 

 dently expected 

 that it would be 

 a short war and 

 soon over, and 

 therefore did not 

 think it neces- 

 sary to make 

 provision against 

 any long suspen- 

 sion of commer- 

 cial communica- 

 tions. To be sure, 

 some crude rub- 

 ber has found its 

 way into Ger- 

 many via Hol- 

 land and Sweden 



