482 



[December, 1910. 



GUMS, RESINS, SAPS AND EXUDATIONS. 



A QUESTION OP RUBBER PRICES. 



(From the Manila Bulletin, 

 October 4, 1910.) 



The fact that crude rubber has beeu 

 sold lately at much lower prices than 

 manufacturers were obliged to pay a few 

 months ago has revived the question 

 that follows every decline in rubber- 

 Why don't the prices of their products 

 come down in proportion ? We have 

 just seen this question discussed at 

 length in an important daily trade 

 paper, but with the result of its missing 

 the point entirely. 



If a manufacturer should be stocked 

 up with rubber bought at §3 a pound he 

 would feel obliged to realize a corre- 

 sponding price for his goods made from 

 that material, no matter how far the 

 price of the crude might fall meanwhile. 

 Again, if a manufacturer is contracting 

 to-day for rubber at a reduced price, it 

 may be weeks or months before it reaches 

 the_ ultimate consumer, and it is the 

 ultimate consumer who pays the price. 



The rubber footwear makers are busy 

 to-day turning out boots and shoes lor 

 sale to the public next winter, on con- 

 tracts with jobbers booked as long ago 

 as April. Already the prices of raw 

 material have fluctuated this season to 

 a most unusual degree, and more fluctu- 

 ations may happen before winter again 

 drives people to buy overshoes. But 

 the manufacturers must fix prices before 

 the goods are made, and this must be 

 done on the theory of averages for the 

 year that will yield a profit. Like con- 

 ditions obtain in the matter of automo- 

 bile tires, garden hose, or babies' rattles. 



Unlike many articles of commerce, 

 rubber goods are not sold at a base price 

 subject to fluctuations in unmanufac- 

 tured or crude materials, hence the 

 impracticability of changing quotations 

 with every rise and fall iu the raw 

 product. 



PARA, MAN AOS AND THE AMAZON. 



(By the Editor, India Rubber World, 

 Vol. XLI1., No. 5, August, 1910). 



Fifth Letter. 

 Arrival atManaos, the Upriver Rubber 

 Capital.— Touring the City in a Motor 

 Car.— Its fine Modern Appearance.— The 

 People and their Characteristics,— The 

 Rich Products of Amazonia, especially 

 Rubber.— Notes on the Commercial Asso- 

 ciation and the Rubber Congress.— The 

 Transportation System, 



Leaving the muddy Amazon, we were 

 soon forging through the black waters 

 of the Rio Negro. On the north were 

 high, red, clay banks, ratherly scantily 

 clothed with vegetation— that is, as com- 

 pared with the jungle lands below. 

 Native houses began to multiply, and 

 soon we saw the city of Manaos in the 

 distance. A little later we anchored out 

 in the stream, as several ocean steamers 

 which were discharging at the floatiug 

 docks took up all of the room. Hardly 

 was the anchor down before friends 

 were aboard, who attended to all ot the 

 customs formalities, and we walked by 

 the Federal and State customs' men 

 just as if they were non-existent, and, 

 embarking upon a launch, were soon 

 ashore. 



The great Rubber Congress was in 

 session, or soon to be, and the Com- 

 mercial Association paid me the compli- 

 ment of making me its guest, with the 

 privilege of living at a hotel, or at the 

 house of the local representative of 

 "Casa Alden." 1 chose the latter, for 

 had I not met him in Boston the year 

 before, and was he not an American 

 with an American wife and a Yankee 

 baby born in Brazil ? 



There was much excitement in the 

 Rubber market the day of my arrival. 

 The first of the series of spectacular 

 jumps that carried the precious com- 

 modity up to $3 per pound had occurred, 

 and then the river had intdrrupted the 

 cable. Fortunately there was little 

 rubber in to quarrel over, but every- 

 body was on the qui vive just the same. 



We walked from the substantial quays 

 that form the boat landing, past the im- 

 posing custom house, to one of the rubber 

 warehouses, and sat there and chatted 

 and smoked while we cooled off, for the 

 day happened to behct. Then we visited 

 several others in the same line and 

 learned the latest news, which was but a 

 repetition of the story already told. 

 The rubber houses in Manaos were 

 almost exact duplicates of those in Para— 

 a huge warehouse on the ground floor 

 for leceiviug. examining and boxing; 

 offices on the floor above, always with a 

 large staff and assistants and clerks. As 

 in Para, rubber was everywhere in 

 evidence. Open wagons loaded with it 

 passed continually. One enterprising 

 house had a motor truck that crashed 

 al ong the pavement with just the same 

 awkward energy it would display in New 

 York or London, 



