April i. 1915 | 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



367 



the same period of the year before to $45,/3y,8o7, a 

 falling ofl of nearly 44 per cent. But that was due 

 largely to the financial straits in which the South Amer- 

 icans have found themselves since the opening of hostili 

 ties in Europe. 



However, the establishment of X'orth American banks 

 iii Brazil, Argentina and other points is an entering 

 wedge; and when the manufacturers of the United States 

 begin to send their salesmen into these southern parts 

 there is one point that the\ undoubtedly will all keep in 

 mind, because it has been reiterated so constantly by even 

 speaker anil writer on the South American problem, and 

 that i- the necessity of having their salesmen carry with 

 them into the southern ports all the suavity an, I urbanity 

 of which they an- possessed. At the Burton luncheon 

 ex-Senator Root, commenting "ii this matter, said : "< lur 

 short, sharp, brusque, but resourceful wa\ oi transacting 

 business goes near in the verge and sometimes over the 

 verge of bad manners. The business nun of South 

 America are sympathetic and attentive in their business 

 a,- well as in their social relations." So if the traveling 

 man from the States trie- in lhi Smith \nierieaii busi- 



ness h\ methods that are ''short, sharp and brusque, 



will he his own fault. 1 le ha- been amply warned. 



It 



o 



laboratory and the workman to the factory when rubber 

 shall once mure move freely and without restrainl 

 through the normal channels of commerce and the mill- 

 he busy oiiK with those lines of rubber manufactun 

 ci ntribute to the arts of i eace and to the benefit oi man- 

 kind. 



COMMENDING OUR NEUTRALITY. 



K English correspondent, in his contribution to this 

 i-siie reviewing rubber conditions on the other 

 -ale of the sea, take- occasion to say that '"however much 

 the general American press may have on occasions de- 

 parted from professions of neutrality, the international 

 subscribers to The India Rubber World have found 

 nothing in its pages suggestive of bias to one side or the 

 other engaged in the titanic struggle." 



We believe that this statement of our correspondent is 

 entirely in harmony with the facts. While those publica- 

 tions, a large part of whose -pace i- devoted to political 

 discussion, are liable, notwithstanding the best intentions 

 on their part, to be swayed to one side or the other in 

 their attitude towards the combatants is this great war. 

 The India Rubber World, being wholly devoted to the 

 development of the rubber industry wherever it has taken 



A 



AND NOW A JUNK TRUST! 



XI) -hail the humble rubber -hoe. which 

 cathered die wintry blizzard, the January th; 

 the mud of March and the pelting equinox, and al 

 found a quiet resting place on the dump heap -hall this 

 also fall a victim to the insatiable trust? Evidently the 

 Government think- that this has already happened. > 

 i i, ported that the Department of Justice ai Washington 

 has instructed it- agents in the Wesl to mak< a thorough 

 investigation of the so-called "junk trust," to see if its 

 operations ami those of it- allies and subsidiaries are in 

 restraint of trade. It is to he hoped that the charge is 

 groundless. The merging of all railroads under on< 

 trol and the concentration of all the banking activitii 

 the country within one institution might he viewed with 

 equanimity, hut let us trust that the finder of a ! 

 section of worn out and discarded tire may -till he able 

 to command it- full market value and not be compelled 

 to make term- with a grinding monopoly. 



T 



THE MICROBE IS NOT GUILTY. 



'II £ unhappy microbe has latterly become a uni- 

 versal scapegoat. When the doctors are put to it 

 to diagnose a case of physical derangement they -ad- 

 dle it on the microbe. And now it is openly charged 

 that when rubber boots and rubber tire- do not live up 

 to their guarantees and go to pieces prematurely, the 

 microbe did it. Here i- a paragraph which some 

 thoughtless person ha- started through the round- oi 

 the press: "If your automobile tires or your rubber 

 hoot- don't wear as they should, it may lie because 

 microbes are eating them. Rubber, when sufficiently 

 moist, i- frequently attacked by certain bacteria which 

 feed on the albuminoids, resins and sugars it contain-. 

 At least two varieties of microbe are able to assimilate 

 the hydrocarbon of rubber and by -o doing destroy it- 

 value'." 



A false charge! The microbe i- not guilty. To be 

 -lire he i- not at all averse to crude rubber and i- liable 



root in any part of the world, feel- that it would not be under favoring condition- to prey upon its quality. 

 justified, even were it so disposed, to take any other than That'- quite another matter. But when it comes to boots 

 a strictly neutral view of present international conditions. 

 It hopes, now as heretofore, to be of the utmost service 

 to rubber interests wherever they may be situated and 

 whatever may he their political associations; and it is 

 hardly necessary to add that it will feel an infinite sense 

 of relief and satisfaction when this strife -hall cease am! 

 the overseer return to the plantation, the chemist to the 



and tire- and other manufactured l; 1- they possess 



attraction for him. Me doe- not attack their albu 

 minoids and sugars, for the excellent reason that if 

 they are properly vulcanized they have no albu- 

 minoids ami sugars. If they have, they are unworthy 

 to be classed with boots and tires and ought to be 



turned < iver t' i the mien 'be-. 



