August 1, 1915. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



583 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO. 



No. 25 West 45th Sheet, New York. 

 CABLE ADD ESS: IRWORLD. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, Editor 



Vol. 52. 



AUGUST I, 1915. 



No. 5 



Subscriptions: $3.00 per year, $1.75 for six months, postpaid, for the 

 United States and dependencies and Mexico. To the Dominion 

 of Canada and all other countries, $3.50 (or equivalent funds) 

 per year, postpaid. 



Advertising: Rates will he made known on application. 



Remittances: Should always be made by bank draft or Postoffice or 

 Express money order on New York, payable to The India Rubber 

 Publishing Company. Remittances for foreign subscriptions should 

 be sent by International Postal Order, payable as above. 



Discontinuances: Yearly orders for subscriptions and advertising are 

 regarded as permanent, and after the first twelve months they will 

 be discontinued only at the request of the subscriber or advertiser. 

 Bills are rendered promptly at the beginning of each period, and 

 thereby our patrons have due notice of continuance. 



COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 

 Entered at the New York postoffice as mail matter of the second class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



SHALL WE KEEP THE FAITH? 



UNDER the agreement made last January between 

 the British government and the Rubber Club of 

 America, and subscribed to by all the important members 

 of the American trade, the manufacturers agreed, if the 

 embargo on crude rubber were lifted, not to sell rubber 

 either in its crude or manufactured form to any of the 

 enemies of < rreat Britain or to any neutral country except 

 by way of the United Kingdom. This agreement appears 

 faithfully to have been kept. 



But there was a secondary contract, a natural and neces- 

 sary corollary of the first, which read as follows : 



"We will not sell any manufactured or partly manu- 

 factured rubber goods to any person in the United States 

 without satisfying ourselves that there is no intention on 

 his part to export or resell the same for exportation to 

 any countries in Europe other than Great Britain, France. 

 Russia or Italy, otherwise than by shipping to the United 

 Kingdom and reshipping from there under license to be 

 obtained for export therefrom."' 



That this part of the understanding with the British 

 government has been scrupulously observed appears to be 

 open to grave question. The statement is made on au- 

 thority not open to contradiction that during the six 

 *£2 months since the embargo was lifted many ships clearing 

 £H from New York for Scandinavian and Mediterranean 

 i ports have carried motor cars fully equipped with rubber 



CO 



CD 

 3 



tires. The car makers from whose factories these ship-« 

 ments were made cannot plead ignorance of the agreet 

 men) a- to sales in neutral countries, as all the members ( 

 of the automobile trade must have been apprised of it 

 repeatedh and emphatically. 



It would seem a- if some members of the automobile 

 trade took the altitude that the agreement was none of 

 their making and hence none of their concern. If such is 

 the case, there is only one possible course t<i pursue. If 

 the tire manufacturer finds that he cannot control a cer- 

 tain maker of cars, hi- suppl} of tires should be instantly 

 stopped. In view of the guarantees he has signed, the 

 seller of tire- can do no less. 



There are some in the trade who profess to believe that 

 the English, receiving considerably more rubber than 

 they need, and being more than willing to exchange the 

 surplus fur read) cash, would be slow to invoke the em- 

 bargo again even though considerable quantities of rub- 

 ber goods found their way to the enemy. It would not 

 take long to explode this fallacy. England may prefer 

 cash which is greatly needed to excess rubber which is 

 not needed, but England's one overwhelming considera- 

 tion today is the destruction of the enemy, and anything 

 that would in the least postpone that devoutly wished for 

 consummation would get short shrift. 



But entirely apart from the question whether the Brit- 

 ish government if provoked too far would clam]) on the 

 embargo again, is this question — Will the American rub- 

 ber trade, which has entered into an agreement that its 

 product shall not find its way to the enemies of Great 

 Britain, keep the faith? 



AERIAL PREPAREDNESS. 



|\ /TR. ORVILLE WRIGHT, who, by the general 

 consensus of opinion, will be accorded a place 

 on the civilian board of inventors which is to assist 

 the army and navy in our national defence, states that 

 for proper protection in times of peace, not to men- 

 tion requirements in times of war, our military 

 equipment should include at least 2,000 aeroplanes, 

 which would be very nearly 2,000 more than we have 

 at present. 



The utilization of the aeroplane has been one of the 

 most interesting developments of the present war. It 

 is now generally recognized that without these aerial 

 scouts a modern army would be absolutely helpless. 

 It would be like a blind man in a fistic encounter ; it 

 would never know where the enemy was going to 

 strike. The aeroplane is the army's eye. It locates 

 the enemy, it perceives whither he is moving and de- 

 tects his intentions. Because of its far-reaching vis- 

 ion it is no longer possible to strike an army, so pro- 

 tected, unawares. 



