GUMS) RESINS, SAPS AND EXUDATIONS. 



PROSPERITY AND RUBBER. 



(From the India Rubber World, Vol. XL., 

 No. 5, August 1, 1909.) 

 Our regular British correspondent on 

 another page voices a suggestion which 

 is apt to be heard whenever crude rubber 

 prices are on a rising plane — that it may 

 be due to " manipulation." This is an 

 euphonious word, and its use is safe 

 because the assertion involved cannot 

 readily be proved or disproved. Besides, 

 while the charge of " manipulation " may 

 be meant to be uncomplimentary to 

 somebody, it neither carries a criminal 

 imputation nor is aimed at any one in 

 particular. It is, therefore, harmless. 



Usually a rise in rubber prices is 

 attributed in Europe to influences on 

 this side the Atlantic, and vice versa. 

 But just where or how rubber prices are 

 fixed has not yet become a simple 

 question. Assuming that advances in 

 rubber are due to speculative manipula- 

 tion, how about the fall in prices which 

 generally follows ? 



All buying and selling of commodities 

 is more or less speculative, but what is 

 criticised is the alleged control of the 

 market by other influences than mere 

 supply and demand. It is certain that 

 much trading in crude rubber is of the 

 class known as " short" sales, which 

 involves an effort to depress prices. Most 

 purely speculative effort in the rubber 

 market is of this kind, instead of creat- 

 ing a " corner" in the supply and forcing 

 consumers to pay exorbitant prices. 

 Most attempts to corner rubber have 

 resulted disastrously to the promoters, 

 and if high prices have resulted a speedy 

 " slump " has followed, 



Whatever the cause of fluctuations in 

 rubber, however, each succeeding slump 

 • has stopped a higher point than the one 

 before, until it would now appear that 

 the normal price of rubber is twice as 

 high as twenty years ago, in spite of the 

 greatly increased production meanwhile. 

 Surely this general and long sustained 

 advance— to say nothing of the earlier 

 steady advance from 25 cents per pound 

 —cannot be attributed to any purely 

 speculative influences. The demand for 

 rubber has crown steadily from the date 

 of its first utilization, and continues to 

 grow. Whatever may be the future 

 capacity of the world to produce rubber, 

 it is now below the world's needs for the 

 material. 



The automobile situation in America 

 alone points to a vastly enlarged increase 

 in the world's demand for rubber, 



During the recent year of depressed 

 business there was no loss of activity in 

 the automobile industry in the United 

 States, but each year showed a larger 

 production of vehicles. This year's out- 

 put is larger than ever, while every^ 

 indication points to a still greater rate* 

 of increase for 1910. The condition is 

 near at hand when automobile tires 

 alone will call for as much rubber as 

 was consumed in the whole industry in 

 the United States ten years ago— the 

 date of the introduction of the automo- 

 bile. The condition of the country as a 

 whole is most satisfactory. The period 

 of depression referred to did not leave 

 the country poorer, but in many respects 

 in a better condition, and there is reason 

 to expect a more notable era of progress 

 than has -yet been witnessed. To note a 

 single feature, the normal condition of 

 agriculture in America is the ownership 

 of the land by the men who till it — every 

 farmer his own landlord — with such 

 results that the farmers are becoming 

 notably wealthy as a class ; the typical 

 farmer to-day is an automobile owner. 



But the future of the rubber industry 

 will not be concerned with automobiles 

 alone. The commercial truck and the 

 farmer's and villagers' buggy demand 

 rubber tires. And all the other branches 

 of the rubber industry show a steady 

 rate of growth. While the sale ot 

 mechanical goods, footwear, and the 

 like during a year or so past fell off in 

 volume, the profits reported by the large 

 manufacturers were no less than in 

 former years, and the condition of the 

 industry was never more promising than 

 now. It is such conditions of prosperity 

 in America — to say nothing of the rest 

 of the world — that make rubber cost 

 more— not the manipulation of a few 

 traders buying and selling. They could 

 not sell at current prices unless the 

 world wanted rubber goods in larger 

 volume year after year. Better consider, 

 as affecting rubber prices, such factors 

 as the " record" American corn crop this 

 year, estimated at 3,000,000,000 bushels, 

 and the sale of which will help to swell 

 so many farmers' bank accounts. 



PALO AMARILLO RUBBER. 



(From the Indian Trade Journal, Vol. 

 XV., No. 185, October 14, 1909.) 

 The Palo Amarillo tree was discovered 

 a few years ago on the slopes of the 

 Sierra Madre, and upon investigation it 

 was found to be a botanically unknown 

 species, It is known in Mexico under 



