The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-03-18
u. S. MUST GROW
ITS OWN RUBBER,
.PRODERS REPORT
Democrats Seize Issue
for Campaign
tspeeIaI 70 rhe paIIy Worker,

WASHINGTON, March 10. - The
house Interstate and foreign COM
meree committee has returned a re-
port of its Investigation Into the mat
ter Of foreign control Of raw materials
essential to American Industry.
It finds that as matter Of fact
Great Britain has monopoly Of rae
rubber supplies. In addition, the fol-
lowing nations control the bulk Of the
commodities named below: Brazil,
coffee; Germany and France, potash;
Chile, nitrates and iodine; Egypt, long
staple cotton; Japan, camphor, and
sometimes silk, and Yucatan, sisal.
Retaliation was not advised by the
committee which urged instead that
this country should develop it's own
sources of supply. Rubber develop,
ment, 1t held, was possible on large
scale in the southern states and the
southern islands of the United States.
The guayule shrub, it pointed out, can
be grown with little difficulty in our
south. This plant can be easily de.
veloped as a rubber producer. Pan
ANA, Brazil, Columbia and other parts
Of tropical America, together with
Liberia, were named as promising To-
calities for an American owned rub
her industry to develop. These coun-
tries are all recognized fields for
American Imperialism.
Let John D. Do II,
The development Of Muscle Shoals
under private management will con-
tribute materially, the committee
held, to the solution of the nitrates
problem.
The conclusion of the report was
that no direct government aid or sub
sidy be granted in an effort to solve
the problem. Private initiative will
eventually take care of the question,
it stated in substance.
Report Meets Opposition.
A powerful group of democrats, sup
ported by some republican insurgents,
are in open rebellion over the COM
mittee's failure to do more than en-
dorse conservation campaigns and
suggest as positive remedy that the
United States should grow its own
rubber. This group believes that with
rubber still more than double what
even British experts claim is a fair
price the American consumer, who
buys rs per cent of the production,
still has grievance.
Cotton Versus Rubber
A variety of weapons are at hand
if congress should cast about for
means of forcing foreign monopolies
to relax their hold on essential com
modities.
The southern cotton crop occupies
the same relative position as British
rubber. If anything, its is even
more essential to world industry. 1t
would provide the United States with
an ideal weapon for use against Great
Britain, this group holds.
Many democrats, believing that such
action might, in addition, materially
benefit the south thru higher cotton |
prices, advocate an American "Stev-
enson act" similar to the measure by
which Great Britain curtadled produc-
ton and brot unparalleled prosperity
to rubber planters.
1t will be many years before the
plantations. recently started by
several American manufacturers in
various parts Of the world come into
bearing. For this reason, it was de.
clared, American motorists may again
at any time be confronted with 81
rubber and almost prohibitively high
tire prices.
New Campaign Blind.
The democratic movement for re-
vision Of the Fordney-McCumber tar
III, which is expected to be cam.
paign issue, gained new impetus as a
result Of the committee report. Demo
Gratis have maintained all along that
the Stevenson act was caused primar-
lily by high American tariff rates. |