Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-08
Rubber Production and Consumption
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

For nearly q year, trade in rubber
has been unrestricted and 1t Is possible
to take o view Of the effects which
artificial governmental measures have
upon an economic situation. In 1922
the British government put into effect
the Stevenson plan, which restricted
exports of rubber from British Malaga
to only so per cent of what they had
been normally. In conformity with the
natural law of supply and demand the
price of rubber rose so high that 1t was
estimated by the Department Of Com
merce that the Stevenson plan cost the
American people half q billion dollars a
year over and above what they had
been accustomed to paying for crude
rubber.
This country is the worlds largest
consumer Of rubber and the largest ex-
porter of and manufacturer Of rubber
Not a pound of rubber Is raised In the
United States because the rubber plants
which one sees occasionally standing
in the corner of sitting room near the
parrots cage is scarcely to be considered
as q producer Of latex In the COM
mercial sense
The reason for the introduction Of the
Stevenson plan for restricted exports
was that the price of rubber had fallen
too low and the planters were facing
bankruptcy. The plan worked well
enough from that point of view, the
price soaring several hundred per cent.
But 1t had another, and perhaps I'M
foreseen, effect. Even while the restric-
ton was effective there developed the
greatest expansion in demand for rub
Der the world had ever known, especially
from this country. The automobile fac
tories began pouring cars out at q fan.
tastic rate, and 1t is probable that even
without the Stevenson restriction the
price OF rubber would quickly have risen
because Of the increased demand.
This heavy demand resulted in a
tremendous rise in the exports of Dutch
Malaga, the principal competitor of
the British colonies. Before 1922 Brit
ish Malaga had supplied two-thirds of
the worlds total of rubber in crude
form. Under the restriction plan
British exports were curtailed and
Dutch exports were stimulated, with the
result that the British share in the
business fell to only half the total. The
opportunity was a bonanza for the
Dutch, who grew rich. Their rubber
exports increased l45 per cent between
1922 and 1928, when the restriction on
British exports came to an end.
There was smuggling out of rubber.
as was to be expected, but this did not
greatly AFFECT the tonnage figures Some
natives and traders made large profits
in this way, but at considerable risk.
Necessity Brings Inventions.
The pinch in the United States was
felt very keenly, but Yankee ingenuity
rose to the occasion by perfecting
processes for retaining rubber. Old
tires, old rubber boots, garden hose
anything containing rubber-were put
through the process and the raw rubber
extracted. In 1922 reclamation Of rub
Der amounted to about 10 per cent of
the total of rubber consumed. BY 1927,
when the Stevenson plan was in opera
ton, this proportion Of reclaimed rubber
had risen to 81 per cent.
The effect of the plan was good in
another direction. It caused auto
mobile tire companies to improve their
product and turn out a longer-wearing
tire. The price of rubber was too high
to permit people to 60 on buying tires
at the artificially inflated prices The
high price slowed up tire sales and also
slowed up sales of automobiles. 1t was
to the interest Of every business con-