The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-04-24
THE USES OF RUBBER.
Are Increased as Civilization Goes
FOrward-Facts About the Sup
ply and Demand.

When it SHOWS in New England the
natives up the Amazon and the Congo
rivers get more rum for pulling gum
from the rubber trees in the forests
there.
They neither know nor care what
the rubber is good for, nor where it
goes or why, but by some means they
learn that the demand for it is good.
They straightway require more
money or drink, states the New York
Mail and Express.
The rubber trade is one of the ups
and downs with the sec sons and the
weather. 1t is literally true that a
snowstorm in New York, Philadelphia
or Boston or in any thickly populated
territory puts hundreds of thou
sands of dollars into the pockets of
the rubber footwear manufacturers.
1t consequently affects the heather
of two continents who have never
seen and who never will see snow
flake.
Authorities in the rubber trade say
that their business generally is in
better condition to-day than it ever
has been; that it is growing con-
stantly in all lines, and that con-
sumption is increasing beyond all
presidents. The factories are max
ing good profits on the finishing of
standard grades, which are selling at
from so to SO cents pound in the
crude form as shipped here from
South America and Africa.
Para rubber from upper Brazil is
the best in the world. A thousand
miles up the Amazon are villages of
as high as 10000 inhabitants, where
ten years ago all was wilderness.
Cables run down the river and con-
meet with those of the world. Towns
are lighted by electric plants sent
from the United States and every
thing is as modern as one of our
western towns. The forests are be-
ing worked like the maple groves of
Vermont or New Hampshire, and
preserved for their future value,
though tree can be stripped of
more gum by being cut down than by
being tapped.
There are over 1900 known botan-
zeal species from which rubber gum
may be taken. When consumption is
great the wilds of UNEMPLOYED conti-
nents are penetrated for their gum
possibilities. Crude rubber fiuctuates
as wheat does or copper. The prices
of the stock of a rubber trust do not
affect it, but the demand of the fac
tories which are capitalized in the
trust does. Crude rubber is some
times, as now, higher in Brazil than in
New York, leaving out the cost of
ocean freights. Merchants there often
hold their stocks, and, while no rub
Der exchange exists, they buy up the
product and store it until they believe
prices will soon be higher in New York
or Liverpool. Cargoes of rubber are
often sent from New York to Liver
pool or the other way, on account of
a small difference in the price here and
there.
Crude rubber is shipped in huge balls
of about 800 pounds each, packed in
pine boxes. The boards for making
these boxes are taken from New York
on the ships that bring the rubber
gum back here again, and nailed to-
gether somewhere up the Amazon or
the Congo. And when the gum reaches
here it goes into warehouses in all
its various grades, to be taken by man
ufacturers according to their needs.
The automobile and wagon rubber
tire has already become greater
source of profit annually to the man
ufacturer than the bicycle tire ever
was. Most bicycle tire manufacturers
lost money. A few made immense
sums, but were glad to quit before
they lost them again. The end of a
fad, which the bicycle in its craze was,
is not to be feared with the wagon
tire or the automobile, it is believed,
and either of these takes many times
as much rubber as the light bicycle
tire.
Then, too, the compulsory equip
ment of cars with air brakes to pro-
tect passengers and railroad employees
against accident has made a market
for miles upon miles of rubber hose
for this purpose. Every small town
that puts in a waterworks requires
hose for fire department, and the cit
liens buy it for garden purposes. The
hose used in the larger cities, and
everywhere for that matter, has to
be renewed frequently
Rubber betting is coming more and
more into use, and there is a steady
demand for it. Electricity in it's ad-
vancement takes more for insulating
purposes, too.
Greatest of all is the increase in the
amount of rubber consumed in the
making of footwear and incidentally
mackintoshes. This line of trade has
been steadily advancing with the ed
ucation of the people up to ideas of
comfort and health protection, and is
the great point of consideration in the
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