The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-07-14
BY PETER EDsok
Monitor-leoder Washington
Correspondent

Some fosC'notIn9 reports
ore being peddled ground
Washington about feorIess
American explorers, deep in
the heart ONO, not Texos-
deep in the heart Of BroziI,
looking for raw motive rub
Der. They're supposed TO be so
deep in the heart Of the
Amazon country that shoteuns
have to be flown in to them to
be used for hunting their food.
This Jungle is so wild thot the
rubber explorers hove to live
off what they can shoot. it be-
ina too for inland for food
supplies to be transported to
them.
The anticipated happy end
ina to these stories will be thot
the fearless explorers, way
back in some Jungle never Wis
tied by white man before, will
find O beautiful Shoneri-lo Of
rubber trees, supplying enough
rubber to make tires for every
one. So optimistic ore some
theorists about this possibility
thot preliminary requests have
been drown up for prioritles on
$4,000 tin-cups TO gather the
rubber os it drips from the
trees.
But wait up q minute. There
ore still q few reo|ists remark
ing pointedIy that if this coun-
try is so remote, it might be q
bit difficult to get the rubber
out, even if the explorers dc
find it, which the skeptics Sc
riousIy doubt they will. And
this tin.oup priority business is
typical of some OF the fuzzy
thinking still going on in high
places. Brozi|ions have beer
gathering what little rubber
they can find in eourds, FOL
years, and there is no priority
on oourds in the Amazon.
DOWNRIGHT DEcEtTFUl
ReoIists in the raw rubber
supply business doubt thai
there is enough, motive rubber
in all Latin America to supply
more than 10000 tons, or les:
than one.holf Of ] per cent o.
, u. S. needs this year. Conse
quentIy, it is downright de-
ceptive to lead anyone to hope
thot there is any immediate o.
eventual solution to the rub
! Der shortage in the woods o
; the western hemisphere.
Department Of Commerc'
stotistics show that the bes
yield Of Broziion rubber eve
obtained wos S., 900 tons {
year when the price was 81 81
q pound. Top price today is s.
cents, and there is no enthus
iosm for going out and getting
it OF that price.
Such rubber as is produced
in Brozit has three POSSIBLE
outlets, under present worlt
i shipping conditions: BrozIio'
: manufacturers can grab it 70
: home consumption, it can b.
exported TO the United Stotes
|, it can go out the back way
e through Bolivia to the Ar9en
tine. BroziIlon rubber expor
S figures for the month Of May
1912, Iotest figures obtoinobIe
a tell this story.
g TotoI production Of Brozil
Q ian rubber that month wa
. 1000 tons. Of that, ll5O ton
, went to Btozilion rubber manu-
= focturers, ESQ tons came t
q the United Stotes and the res
went to Argentina. Areentin
buyers got over twice as muc|
y as the United Stotes did, an
/ the Argentine is the most &C
II tive competition this countr
has, all over South America.
q A LOSING GAMBLE
In the foce Of this situotior
y the pressure from some gov
$ eminent sources on UncI
Jesse Jones and his Rubbe
Reserve Corporation, to fin
onoe O lot Of rubber pIonto
tons in Latin America, is sal
y TO be terrific. 1t takes eieh
% years to get production from
newly planted rubber pIonto
Fl" ton. In the foce Of certoin l