312 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 1, 1915. 



half decade of about 60 per cent. But this reduction is hand, but he promised if any legal and equitable form 



warranted by the increased emciencj of manufacturing 



plants, the extraordinary fall in the price of crude rubber 



from $2.50 and over t. > the neighborhood of 60 cents per 



pound and the exceptionally lew price at which cotton is 



now selling. 



With good, serviceable cars selling for a very few hun- 

 dred dollars, and with tire maintenance, under ordinary 

 conditons of travel and with reasonable use. amounting. 

 let us say, to not over $100 a year, the happy condition 

 has arrived where the plain citizen may become a car 

 owner without curtailing In- reasonable expenditures for 

 food and shelter or bringing the sources of hi- income 

 under suspicion. 



COMBINATION FOR EXTENSION OF TRADE. 



T \ his interesting forty-five minute dissertation before 

 *■ the Chamber of Commerce of the United States 

 early in February. President \\ ilson, after discussing 

 many and varied matters, addressed himself briefly to 

 one subject which is of vast importance to all the 

 manufacturers of the United States, including those 

 who manufacture rubber goods. He spoke of the 

 it disadvantage under which American exporters 

 are placed in seeking foreign markets in the restric- 

 tions which prevent them from combining forces, as 

 compared with foreign exporters, who are not only 



of combination could be devised for entering foreign 

 markets he would favor it. 



In this address he exposed the chief weakness in 

 our foreign trade situation. Assuming that the Presi- 

 dent is right in his construction of the Sherman law. 

 namely, that it forbids all combination irrespective of 

 it- purpose, it is obvious that the small manufacturer 

 and importer must find the foreign field if not closed 

 to them at least a difficult and expensive one to enter. 

 Under these conditions it would seem quite urgent 

 that the legal branch of the Executive Department 

 should give a definite interpretation of the anti-trusl 

 law- which will ensure American commercial interests 

 immunity if they combine for foreign trade, or eke, 

 if this is not possible, that Congress should so amend the 

 anti-trust laws that their restrictions should appb 

 only to those combinations which are distinctly in 

 restraint of trade and not to those whose purpose i- 

 general trade expansion. 



WAR'S PROMOTION OF LIFE-SAVING DEVICES. 



W 



AR'S first business is slaughter; the greater the 

 slaughter the more successful the war. But 



over against this truism lies the fact, as a sort of in- 

 verted corollary, that war's second concern is the 

 encouraged but are assisted by their respective gov- preservation of life. Each combatant seeks to destroy 

 ernments in cooperating to secure foreign trade. as many of the enemy as possible while saving his 



1 le appeared to assume that the anti-trust laws made it own men. So, while in time of war many active brains 

 illegal for any sort of combination of commercial in- are engaged in devising new agencies of destruction, 

 terests whether that combination was in restraint of an equal number are absorbed in the invention of 



trade or for the purpose of extending trade. He 

 pointed to the obvious fact that under these condi- 

 tions the great manufacturing corporations which are 

 able to extend their organization into every quarter 

 of the globe can tint- secure practically a monopoly 

 of the export business, as the smaller manufacturer 

 is in no position to maintain such an extended organi- 

 zation. He said: "The question arises, therefore, how 

 are the smaller merchant-, how are the younger and 

 weaker corporations, going to get a foothold a- against 

 the combinations which are permitted and even en- 

 couraged by foreign governments in this very field oi 

 competition? I want to be shown how that combina- 

 tion can be made and conducted in a w a_\ which won't 

 close it against the use of everybody who want- to 

 use it." Air. Wilson stated that he did not expect the 

 members present to offer a feasible working plan off- 



means to nullify these new methods of attack. 



For instance, of all the recent devices for destroy- 

 ing life at sea. none is so appalling in its work as the 

 submarine. It comes upon its victim unseen, it strikes 

 from the dark and there is no hope of escape. But 

 since the beginning of the present great conflict, with 

 its swift development of submarine warfare, there has 

 been a constant effort to mitigate its work in the de- 

 struction of human life. The British Admiralty early 

 in the \var arranged to have the officers and men of its 

 fleet equipped with a swimming collar — which was de- 

 scribed and illustrated in the January number of this 

 publication — and everyone on board in time of possi- 

 ble attack is compelled to have this collar about his 

 neck during waking hour- and inflated and at his side 

 during sleep. 



But the Germans have not lagged behind, for when 



