Evening star., 1942-08-17
Tree Rubber Movino
In Increased Volume
From Latin America
Airfields Built in jungle,
Boat Fleets Organized
To Hasten Supplies
BY NAT A. BARROWS.

Foreign Correspondent OF The Star and
Chicaso Daily News.
BOGOTA, Aug 17-Tree rubber
Is at last beginning to move in in
ereasing amounts from the vast,
wild tracts of the Latin American
Jungles and river banks to the
United States war industries.
Backed by local governmental reg
ulations giving the United States
wild rubber monopolies, and inspired
by desperate need to find new fields
unoccupied by the enemy, a corps
OF experts and executives are set
ting up Offices from Mexico to Brazil.
In another month or six weeks rep
resentatives of the Rubber Reserve
Go. OF the Reconstruction Finance
Corp. will be operating full time In
Mexico City, Guatemala City. San
Jose. Costa Rica, Bogota, Caracas,
Quito, Lima, La Paz and three Bra
lillian cities.
Airfields Built.
Eleven airhelds are being con-
structed solely for flying out rubber
In regions where desperate lack of
transportation always before pre-
vented commercial exploitation of
wild trees, especially along the upper
reaches of the Orinoco and the
Amazon. Fleets of shallow boats
are being organized; gangs of native
tappers are being equipped for long
periods in the jungle, and survey
parties are plunging through un-
known territory in search for more
fields Of base metals and fiber as
well as subber.
Latin American output of wild
rubber by the end of the year, it is
estimated, will be about 10000 tons
in Brazil, Mexico, Central America,
Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and
Venezuela. 1t is hoped that next
years output will be double that
amount.
Wirking under the Bureau of
Economic Warfare, our rubber pion-
eers are accepting rubber wherever
they can get it, paying as much as
46 cents a pound if necessary and
shipping it to the United States in
any way they can. In the United
hJpcbCo llJlllC14uS al Z W Wal
industries as directed by the War
Productions Board.
Transport Big Problem.
The biggest problem here in Latin
America is not in finding the rub
Der but in getting 1t out. The prob
lem of transportation is almost be-
yond belief for those unfamiliar
with these great jungles and noun
tain ranges. That is why airplanes
must be used more and more as the
tapping increases. Actual tapping,
also, is big problem for the natives
must be organized, for a long stay
beyond civilization, equipped with
supplies, medicines and comforts.
Roads must be chopped out and as
much processing as possible done
on the spot to reduce the carrying
burden.
For the most part the tapping is
being done by local contractors
under the joint control of the United
States and the local governments. |
Government participation in this
frantic rush to obtain rubber varies
from marked degree in Nicaragua,
Peru, Colombia and Brazil to lesser
degree in the other countries. but
all have given the United States a
monopoly.
Latin American rubber is not 60
Ing to come anywhere near to filling
United States requirements in the
next 10 months, thanks to lack of
foresight in developing these out
lets, but every ounce sent north will
help. The first rubber bought in
Latin America was on April II, when
the Bureau of Economic Warfare
found and quickly put the cash on
the line for a pile in Barranouilla,
Colombia. Now. with their pockets
full OF cash United States Rubber
Reserve officials are securing every
possible area in a bitterly learned
race against time.
(copyright, 1912. by Chicago Daily News)