New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-04-24
THE RUBBER BOOM
Not Yet Another Circus
Frantic Scramble for Wealth.
London, April Is.

London, April 13.
The rubber boom has not yet been
nicknaned a circus The most daring
Spectator in Kaf1rs went 70 South
Africa as a circus clown and returned
70 PiccadiIly a multi-milliOnaire. with
ambitions as a palace builder and a
patron OF arts. The Kafir circus had
its ringmaste-s. its flying trapeze acts
and it's comedy Of adventure and it was
the best advertised show ever known in
the city. In one respect only is the
rubber boom equally conspicuous. and
that is in publicity. Stock promotion
has been conducted with as much energy
and with even more system; the pros
pectuses of new companies have been
printed in the daily press with even
greater ostentatiOn. and tens of thou
sands Of investors have been drawn into
the rubber boom.
The fluctuations in values have been
less startling than during the Kaffir
excitement. when the depreciation OF a
dozen representative mining stocks ex-
ceeded S113.OO0OOO in ten days; and
less sensational than they were when
SPECTATORS in gold and diamond shares
who had been penniless a few years
before were losing half million in a
week and regaining it in another fort
night. There has been rising market.
with only a few trivial setbaeks. and
jobbers, brokers, investors and specu-
lators have been profiting by the general
rush TO purchase rubber shares
There have been no losers in rubber
for the last year. Everybody who has
touched il has either made a fortune or
is in the way OF selling out his interests
at a market advance in values The de-
termining factors Of the problem have
been an enormous increase in the
consumption of rubber. especially in
America, which imports 81 per cent
OF the raw material In the course of
two years those imports have been
doubled in consequence Of the phenOm-
email expansion OF the motor industry and
other causes The supply has fallen
short OF the demand and prices have
gene up like the mercury in the dog
days.
The men who have profted heavily
BY the rise in values are large operators
with holdings in East Indian companies
When they perceived the largely in
creased use of rubber in various in
dustries they were shrewd enough TO
forecast a rapid rise in prices and Il
marked Improvement in dividends. They
purchased holdings in companies which
had been organized by experienced tea
planters for the sake OF varying their
crops and having a scientific rotation
OF produce Mr. Keith Fraser Arbuth-
not was enc OF these operators. He
selected seven Of the best managed en-
tsrprises and obtained control OF over
100000 shares. He retained possession
Of them until the shares had largely
increased in value and then sold his in
terests to a company with fresh masses
OF capital for developing the resources
Of the estates and doubling the prOduc-
ton of rubber
The planters themselves have made
less money than the shrewd investors
who had the capital 20 put into these
enterprises when the prices were low
and dividends uncertain. The East
Indian planters had tried coffee. cocoa
and tea with unsatisfactory results
owing TO the pressure OF competitors
from tropical countries where there were
better labor conditions. and when they
began 10 plant rubber trees they had
little faith in the new undertaking and
even less capital for an industry which
required time for the growth Of the
trees and scientific arrangements for Sc
curing rotation in bearing and a steadily
increasing product. With heavily mort
gagged estates. they were not in a position
for keeping their interests under thei=
own control
The great fortunes IN rubber have
been made by financiers who bought big
blocks OF shares at two shillings and
sold them FOR ten or twenty times what
they paid for them Some OF them have
cleared as much as 81. 100000 by the rise
in the market value OF their holdings
and as soon as they have disposed OF
their interests by the formation OF new
companies they have invested their fort
unes in fresh rubber enterprises. with
the conviction that the public would
take as many shares as were offered and
not De critical or inqusitive about the
methods of valuing properties and OF
estimating earnings
For many weeks there has been wild
and indiscriminate buying OF rubber
shares Orders have come from every
corner Of the kingdom and from every
class OF investor. Scores. and even
hundreds. OF new companies have been
formed and their issues OF shares have
been absorbed with astonishing rapidity.
Brokers and iohbers have been over
whelmed WITH orders. and their clerks
have been employed until midnight day
after day In keeping abreast with busi-
ness. Every day there has been furious
h-sAa. In the open market. and prices