68 RUBBER 



admit that the call on rubber for active service was 

 only a temporary stimulus to the industry, but point 

 out that this artificial spur checked the natural growth 

 of the industry by interrupting the adoption of rubber 

 in civil life. Before the war, rubber was gaining ground 

 with striking rapidity as the popular material for a 

 wide variety of necessities and luxuries; now that the 

 war is over, rubber has an opportunity of continuing 

 its civil career with phenomenal success, serving as an 

 indispensable material for reconstruction activities 

 and for the business and pleasure facilities of a pro- 

 gressive civilization. Motor traffic is bound to in- 

 crease, particularly in our less-developed and enter- 

 prising colonies, where the making of roads suitable for 

 motor transport is recognized as a primary essential 

 to the development of natural wealth, such as agri- 

 cultural possibilities and mineral deposits; up will go 

 the demand for tyres, and this is but one of the many 

 ways in which already known uses for rubber should 

 make a bigger draw on the output of the raw material. 

 It is well within the boimds of possibilities that uses 

 which have already successfully passed the experimental 

 stage may pass into the sphere of practical life — for 

 instance, rubber roadways and rubber tennis-courts. 

 And it is more than likely that many new uses for 

 rubber will be discovered. 



Certainly, the outlook reveals chances of catas- 

 trophes — the price of raw rubber has fallen perilously 

 near to the lowest margin at which Brazil can comj)ete 

 with the plantation product, but Brazil is making 

 some strenuous efforts to reduce the cost price of 

 obtaining forest supplies; on the other hand, disease 

 is threatening the trees on the Eastern plantations, 

 but it has been scientifically treated from the outset of 



