Evening star., 1923-08-10
TRADE NOT TO CUT
AUTO TIRE PRICES
Promised Reduction Unex-
pectedIy Countermanded.
Conjecture as to Cause.
BY j. c. ROYLE.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, August 1o.-Motorists
who have been waiting for a chance
to buy new tires at a low price still
have a wait in front OF them. The
| cut in the price of automobile tires
which the Firestone Tire and Rubber
Company was scheduled to put into
effect the end of this week has been
! postponed. Whether it has been
abandoned is not generally known
! Firestone dealers, according to the
! trade, were notified secretly of the
| proposed cut about week ago. Ad-
vertising announcement 8 were pre-
pared, but these have been withdrawn,
| in some instances after they were in
type.
There has been considerable con-
lecture among tire and rubber men
as to the cause OF this action. II ~
known, however, that several othef
manufacturers, although they visor-
ously opposed a price reduction az
this time. learned of the move anu
were prepared to follow the Fire
stone lead, as they did some months
ago, when the first reduction went
! into effect. Then, too, rubber prices
have stiffened materially both in Lon
don and in the local market. adVanc,
| ing above the 3O-cents-a-pound level
! tor last quarter deliveries.
Reason Is Assigned.
| This advance, according to Fred H.
| Peterson, prominent local dealer, VINO
has just returned from study OF the
! London market, is due TO the tacl
that output restrictions ON the Brlt-
ish-owned plantations in Malay. I'M
| posed under the Stephenson plan.
have at last begun to restrict.
| The surplus rushed TO the so-calieu
| free ports before the restrictions
went into effect has now been alb
! Sorbed to large degree. MT. Peter-
| son said. In addition. the BRUSH
| colonial government has reduced tne
amount which may be shipped in the
! per cent. as is provided Tor IN the
: plan whenever the average for the
previous quarter has failed 10 reach
! l. pence, or a little under - cents
| a pound in American money
British plantation owners in Dutch
East Indian territory are voluntarily
obeyiug the restrictions. he added
Then also the more effective Methous
Of preventing the smuggling out OF
rubber TO the free ports have been
inaugurated, and. although some
smuggling still exists. IL is conhned
almost entirely to small amounts OF
| unsmoked sheets collected by chinese
and Japanese traders, which have to
Drop in Import Rubber.
only about 100000 tons OF rub
ber were imported in July. and II is
expected that this will drop to H.
OoO. 900 tons this month. The latter
amount is about the normal amount
consumed. but there still remain large
stocks, both here and in London.
Some of the rubber thrown on the
market earlier this year is under
stood to have come from japanese
spectators who bought heavily be-
fore restriction and were forced 10
unload their holdings by changes IN
the silk and cotton markets in which
also they were heavily involved.
The percentage of the rubber
brought into this country which is
now in the form of tires is not def :
nitely known. but manufacturers
stocks are believed by the trade TO be
extremely heavy in spite of the fact
! that tire output has been cut nearly
40 per cent from the peak production
of the year Dealers stocks are known
to be heavy and some retailers have
sufficient castings on hand to run them
through the fall season.
Auto Tourist Traffic Heavy.
The demand from the public. how
ever, has been active. Throughout all
sections of the country automobile
tourist traffic has been extremely
heavy Travel to the national parks
the Yellowstone is estimated both by
railroad and automobile experts as
80 per cent above that for August
1922. and the peak of travel has not
yet been reached.
Seattle attributes the fact that re-
tail business there has shown no sum-
mer slump and is fully up to the five
year annual average to the increased
automobile and railroad traffic on the
west coast. Hotels in all the north
Pacific cities, including Vancouver
and Victoria are taxed to the limit to
provide accommoda tions for visitors
Through rail traffic by way Of Den
YER to the Pacific coast is much
heavier. with trains running In two
and three sections to accommodate te
the demand.
"All the railroads operating through
Denver will have an excellent year"
Frank A. Wadleigh, general pas
senger agent of the Denver and Rio
Grande Western railroad, declared to-
day.