El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-01-02
BRITISH PLACE
BAN ON RUBBER
Automobile Tires May Rise
in Price if it is Not
Lifted at Once.

'"The Rubber Club Of America, d."
which includes in its membership the
leading rubber manufacturers and i'm
porters of the United States, has given
out a statement of the serious situa-
ton which the American rubber indus
try faces on account of the British en-
barge on crude rubber, a situation that
will affect every user Of automobile
tires.
Unless England consents to at least
a partial removal of this embargo at
an early date, it Will mean many idle
men in rubber manufacturing centers
and a substantial increase in the price
Of all articles manufactured Of rubber
from automobile tires to rubber bands, -"
says the statement.
1.-The reason for Great Britain's dras-
tic action is to be found in her deter
mination to prevent Germany and her
allies absolutely from obtaining any
Of the crude rubber grown on the great
plantations in the British colonies of
CeylOn and the Federated Malay states.
The Importance of rubber in the
present war is evident from the extern
sive use Of automobiles for all kinds
of transport as well as rubber foot
wear, ground sheets, clothing and bal
loon fabrics.
Blow Aimed Mt Germany.
Germany is willing to pay almost
any price to obtain crude rubber, and
it is only natural that Great Britain
should take every precaution to pre-
vent rubber from reaching her enc
mics. Nevertheless, it is felt by the
American rubber industry that her in
terests would be thoroughly protected
by guarantees against the reexpOrta-
ton of rubber, which both manufacture
ers and importers are willing to give.
Under the circumstances it seems that
Great Britain is placing an unneces-
sary hardship on rubber manufacturers
in this country.
'Druing the early days of October,
England began to treat crude rubber
as cOntraband of war, and about the
same time placed an embargo on all
shipments Of rubber from her colo
MES to any but English ports. This
meant that all direct shipments from
Singapore and Colombo to New York
were stopped. But rubber still came
on from London as before On No
vember 13 England extended the en-
barge to apply to all shipments of
crude rubber from all English ports to
any countries except those of her al
lies. Since that time no plantation
rubber has been shipped to the United
States.
Unlike the majority OF our Ameri-
can Industries, the rubber industry is
entirely dependent upon crude rubber
imported from foreign countries. In
fact, the rubber industry is probably
the largest business in this country
wholly dependent on raw material
brought from abroad. This makes the
cutting off of her principal source of
supply doubly serious.
England and her allies cannot use
more than one-third of the worlds to-
tai production of rubber. On this ac-
count and also because the rubber
growers in the far east are largely de-
pendent on the United States market,
it has caused no little wonder that the
British government has refused to let
supplies come forward to manufacture
ers in the United States upon their
giving proper guarantees against re-
expectation If this attitude is persist
ed in the only reasonable inference is
that England is trying to use this
kind of pressure to obtain concessions
to which our government cannot ac-
cede.
AT the present time the only sources !