Seward daily gateway., 1925-12-10
SEWARD, ALASKA THURsDAY DEcEMBER lo is2s4

ana quota or at least the same size will be completed in the six months following.
 | The .Liberian acquisition and de- velopment by the American company is certain to bring down rubber pric- es which have bounded upwards in the last several months, in MT. Fire stones opinion.
 Planters the world over have had the feeling that America has only been bluffing in it's rubber projects" MT. Flirestone said. 'It has appear ed to them that the United States manufacturers have not been willing to invest money with a return no nearer than five or six years. They believe they have noted an American desire to cash in on investments at once and that therefore the Ameri- cans are not inclined to make any thorough developments. This atti- tude is rapidly changing now as our work goes forward in Liberia" l Following the entry of the Fire stone forces into the little African republic, the company's head an nounced that 35.OOO acres had been acquired in Tobasco on the isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico and that rubber already was being extracted from trees planted there by other l interests several years ago.
 In addition to these enterprises, MT. Firestone capped his worldwide rubber quest with the announcement that he was seriously considering entering the Amazon basin in South America where millions of acres of rubber lands are undeveloped.
 Three concessions have been ob- tained by the Firestone company from the Liberian government The first was the lease of 2,O00 acres of land, previously held and partly de- veloped by British planters. Twelve hundred acres of this land, now planted in rubber trees, is produc- ing rubber and is to be nursery and experiment basis for the larger American project.
 The second lease, which is the mill
 lion-acre, acquisition, gives the Amer lican company not only the right to
 plant and produce rubber on that acreage, but gives it all other rights, such as mineral, sub-soil and timber
 rights. The timber rights are given
 the company, tax-free.
 l A third grant by the Liberian gov
 ernment gives the company the right
 to construct it's own lines of commu-
 nication within and without the plan I tation for it's private use, without tax ation.
 :. In addition to the planting, care
 taking, and collecting of rubber, the
 Firestone company is improving the
 harbor at Monroyia, the seat of Li-
 berian government. From the har-
 bor, roads will be constructed to ra- diate into the hinterlands. Tn the entire area of the country, which is 43,OO0 square miles-almost exactly that of the state of Ohio-there are but 100 miles of passable highway This mileage is segregated and un-
 connected
 Hospitals also will be built and la borers' huts will be constructed fol the housing of the natives who are ot be brought from their pagan vil- lages into the modern sanitary areas of built townss.
 Provision is being made for the importation of foodstuffs to replace the local production that will be !osi \ ra.tv-s ce..C Clltivat ing their own farms and go to worl on the rubber plantation.
 Several thousand of these laborers will shortly be at work for the Am erican concern, employment being l odo+ op bo hocic If Onn man f.