Arizona republican., 1919-03-23
]. $. RUBBER CO. HAS
 RUBBER PLANTATION

The romance of rubber. an indus try which in a generation has risen to the highest importance in Ameri- can business affairs, shows no more startling fact than the completeness with which the far east has van quished Brazil in the race for suprem- acy in crude rubber production. Fifteen years ago Brazil was in possession of the crude rubber field with none to dispute her, and the chief concern of each rubber manufacturer
 was to get his share of BraziFs crop
 before it was gobbled up by com petitors.
 Brazil came to be synonymous with rubber, and today the average man still regards the great South Amer ican country as the chief source of the crude rubber supply. But in a decade and a half the situation has l changed completely, and last year the plantations of the Orient produced
 more than five times as much rubber
 been almost stationary for years but i theeastern crop is increasing by large i percentages each year.
 | ,
 plantations in the far east reads al
 most like q tragedy for Brazil, in
 whose dense forest marshes are still
 millions of magnificent rubber trees
 waiting tobe tapped. But to the
 economist it is merely another illus
 tration that careful business methods | and favorable environment count l heavily in the race for success.
 Numerous causes have contributed to Brazils failure to keep up with the stride, among them being a fail
 ure to break away from primitive
 methods of handling the crop, insuf- ficient labor supply and high cost of living in the rubber section and lack
 of intelligent leadership. The crude
 rubber is there and there in abun-
 dance, but the cost of getting it to the market is so great, and business conditions so unstable and unsatisfac , tory. that capital is not attracted
 America has had its part in the de- Velopment Of the plantations in the , orient. In the Dutch Islands of Su- 1 matra, at a point just above the equa } tor is the plantation of the United
 States Rubber company. which has :, focused the attention of the rubber
 world by its vastness. The company , has displayed typical American energy |. in collecting staffs of technical anC
 practical rubber and horticultural ex-
 perts that are without equal in ths plantation fields.
 The plantation is the largest in the world. More than 70 square miles o | trees growing in stately rows make { picture that stirs the imagination. Al. though of the same species as tho T trees in Brazil, none of the trees i. f wild. careful cultivation marking every g step of growth. Day after day tho r tapping goes on. each tree adding it.
 few drops of precious fluid to tn, 7 supply of crude rubber for the grea ] factories of the United States Rubbel Q company in America. Every tree i Q carefully nurtured. even the seed $ coming in for close treatment ant l study, so as to make sure of produc
 ing a rubber of the highest quality. n Fourteen thousand Asiatics an, q many whites find employment on tn
 plantation and suffer no ill effect a from working under tropical condi f tions. Their welfare is the source o
 constant consideration, and scientist . are giving attention to thes pecia V. problems of the workers welfare y which must be met to keep them wel and happy in a land where heat an
 humidity make conditions hard to cop
 with.
 Much of the nlantation has bee - reclaimed from virgin jungle. Civili . zation will in time drive away tn = wild life, but the section would toda
 furnish greats port for the hunter of big game. Man eating tigers ire E quently make their presence BnowI and elephants are still numerous wandering about singly or in herd! \ The tigers are boon, for they ca \ the wild pigs that feed on growth \ rubber trees. But the elephants ar pest at times. for they show E fondness for pulling up the growth trees. Things that crawl are pres ent in abundance, from the harmles little lizards up to the big deadly co bras and huge pythons.
 Thelabor supply is inexhaustibl with the amounted millions of a Asia to draw from, and the cost ( native living is very low. These con ditions, coupled with efficient busi
 ness methods, assure the continuano of the supremacy of the oriental fiel in cdude rubber production.
 M By growing its own crude rubbe the United States Rubber company in a most advantageous position. \ handles the crude product from tt moment it leaves the tree. and is ab ! to develop a quality and uniformit \ generally lacking in rubber picked u ' in odd lots in the open market, an E is also able to prepare the cruc \ product so as to bebest adapted to u \ special uses to which it is to be put the manufacture of it's tires and u long list of other rubber goods.
 It makes no difference what yo \ xranfs may be vou can have them SUI