Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1919-12-07

How Brazil, possessing in her vast
forests millions of huge rubber trees
Of the finest quality growing in rich
luxuriance all ready for the knife of
the Taper, has been forced by unfa
vorable conditions to permit the crude
rubber supremacy of the world TO be
swept frcm her in a decade by the Far
East is one of the big events in mod
ern business history.
That Brazil can do big things in the
most approved modern fashion needs
no proof beyond her coffee industry,
her undisputed supremacy there being
due to scientific methds of the highest
order. In cacao and cattle raising she
is also demonstrating her capabilities.
But in ruber production she has been
hopelessly outdistanced.
About forty years ago some seeds
from the rubber trees of Brazil were
taken to England and sprouted. Then
a few thousaid nurslings We're trans
planted to Ceylon. Java, Burma and
Singapore. For years little was heard
| OF the enterprise and then came the
demand for rubber tires, and with
that demand rubber from plantations
in the Far East began to triclzle into
the markets.
| Meanwhile the Amazon rubber dis
! trict was going through scenes typical
3, of gold mining rush. Fortunes
| rocketed to the skies and as the
stream of crude rubber flowed down
| the river. there flowed back to Manaos
! a golden flood which made the rubber
city, more luxurious for its size than
Paris and made Manaos the best dia-
mond market in the world. Anything
4 that was expensive could be sold, and
| jewels, fine silks, good wines and
foods, costly furniture and gorgeous
carriages found their way up the great
1 yellow river, passing for a thousand
| miles only the walls of jungle thai
edged the stream. Manaos and Para
became beautiful cities with splendid
buildings. costly homes and flint
streets.
That the position of Brazil, with its
great virgin forests of rubber trees
I could ever be assailed was a ridiculous
thought in those days. Even the manu-
facturers of Europe and America die
not take the plantation efforts seri-
ously. When plantation rubber begat
TO appear in the worlds marts it wa!
taken without enthusiasm and a
prices well below those paid for tn
Brazilian product.
But by 1910 a change came. Tn
demand for rubber for automobile tire
and for a thousand other uses hai
become tremendous and Brazil wa
unable to meet the demand. That wa
the plantations opportunity and the,
made the best of it. Enormous acre
ages were planted and hundreds o
millions invested.
Today Brazil is far to the rear TIL
worlds output of crude rubber for tn
current year will probably reach abou
$4,000 tons. OF this total Brazil wi
produce, by the most liberal estimate
not to exceed $4,000 tons, while fror
: the Far East comes $4,000 TONS
, The explanation for the change j
easily found. In Brazil the rubbe
2 trees are found in the dense jungle
! and the work is done along lines de
t veloped by the Indians and little i'm
4 proved upon. In the Far East traine
:. business men and scientists haN
brought all their skill into play. I
E Brazil the worker cuts his way throug
2 the jungle to a tree. and then to an
$ other and another until he has laid OF
] a path which he can travel day afte
: day to tap the trees along the rout
t In the Far East vast areas are laid OF
like great orchards, the weeds are keT