

THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September 1, 1915. 



tly in mind that if they make extensive investments 

 in increased equipment with the expectation of keeping 

 the new business permanently, they must be prepared 

 later to defend it against attaek from overseas. 



A GIFT THAT IS WORTH A SECOND THOUGHT. 



IT is fairly easy to be generous with your savings when 

 you're dead; there is not much temptation to hold 

 hack something for yourself in your will. But when a 

 man in fine health, with a reasonable expectation of forty 

 years more of life's varying fortunes, divides up with 

 mankind and gives his fellows a large -her of his accu- 

 mulations, that's another story. That is unusual. That 

 is unique. 



But that is just what Mr. Litchfield, factory manager 

 of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., has done. He has 

 been manager of the (ioodyear factory for fifteen years, 

 and by way of celebrating this event, and to show their 

 appreciation of him, his fellow workmen recently gave 

 him a dinner. And he, to show his appreciation of his 

 fellow workmen, presented them with a check for $100,- 

 000, a^ a general welfare fund. Xot so bad for a young 

 man of forty ! It speaks well for his success as a factory 

 manager and still better for the clearness of his vision 

 as to what life's all about. 



with 13,034 tons for the corresponding period a year 

 ago; a gain of over 66 per cent. As the import- of 

 Brazilian rubber into London during the six months end- 

 ing with last June only amounted to 7,506 tons, it is 

 very evident that the great percentage of our imports 

 this year from London consists of plantation rubber; 

 which cannot fail to suggest what a predicament we 

 would have been in if the embargo had been continued. 



SOME INTERESTING CURRENT RUBBER STA- 

 TISTICS. 



SOME recent rubber statistics are rather more than 

 usually interesting. War is invariably a disturbing 

 factor, and undoubtedly the complaints that have come 

 from the rubber planters in the Far East regarding the 

 interference with their shipping facilities are well 

 mded; and it is also undoubtedly true that the planta- 

 tion forces have been much disorganized by reason of 

 the absence of many of their young men in service on the 

 Continent. But notwithstanding all these drawbacks the 

 plantations seem to be getting along very comfortably. 

 The imports of plantation rubber at London during the 

 first six months of the present year amounted to 32,166 

 tons, as compared with 18,074 tons for the corresponding 

 period last year. If the increase of plantation shipments 

 is so rapid under the many present difficulties, what will 

 >t be when the times are again normal? 



There is another item among recent statistics that is 

 also interesting, namely, a comparison of the current 

 imports of rubber into the United States from London 

 with those of last year. For the first six months of the 

 present year they amounted to 21.757 tons, as compared 



BEING INDEPENDENT WHEN YOU'RE NOT. 



IT has been hinted that American rubber manufacturers 

 •*• really did not need to make an agreement with Eng- 

 land as to exports in order to get crude rubber supplies, 

 the argument being that England wants money in the 

 bank very much more than surplus rubber in the ware- 

 house. That is wdiat the Swedes thought, evidently, for 

 they refused an absolute embargo on rubber exports in 

 directions accessible to the enemies of the Allies. A- a 

 result Sweden is reported to he in the throes of a rubber 

 famine, which is likely to grow more acute rather than 

 less. 



An independent spirit is admirable, but the assumption 

 of independence in a position of dependence has its 

 drawbacks. 



WILL BRAZIL VALORIZE AGAIN? 



LATE advices from Brazil state that the federal gov- 

 ernment is definitely contemplating another plan 

 for the valorization of rubber and coffee. The measure 

 has alread} passed the Chamber of Deputies and is said 

 to have such strong influence back of it that it will un- 

 doubtedly pass the Senate in the immediate future. The 

 new president of the republic is believed to have favored 

 the project ever since he came into office. This proposal 

 for valorizing Brazil's chief products i = , briefly, as fol- 

 lows: The government will authorize a new issue of 

 350.000 contos ($90,000,000). a small part of which will 

 be used for taking care of pressing debts while the rest 

 will be employed in financing the coffee and rubber 

 crops. It is the government's hope that this new legis- 

 lation will, measurably at least, relieve the embarrass- 

 ment, caused by the war. in Brazilian financial and com- 

 mercial circles. 



Limiting the consideration of this project to its rela- 

 tion to rubber, the plan briefly is that the government 

 shall deposit this new issue of currency with the Bank 

 of Brazil, and the bank shall be authorized to advance 

 80 per cent, of the value of rubber to producers who 

 place their stock in a warehouse and present the receipt 

 to the bank. 



Valorization has been tried a number of times in 

 Brazil, and has never yet proved a success. The last 



