The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-15

M9mMM D6 ID a l. III 6 Il L,
 Board of Econ- omic Warfare, Office of the Co., ordinator for Inter American Af- fairs, Defense Supplies Corporation, Rubber Reserve Corporation and maybe few others. Just as all these organizations were about ready to get together on state- ment as to what they were doing about South America, Major Dove pops of, and all is confusion again.
 Major Dove's main argument was that if the U. s. would just offer $1 pound for native rubber in South America, all the natives would immediately leap into the jungle and then pump right out of the bramble bush again with IS million tons of rubber, quick like that.
 To see what there is to this claim, take look at the present Board of Economic Welfare-Rubber Reserve Corporation combined program to get the rubber out of the Amazon valley. This area is bigger than the whole United States. It is practically uninhabited, except for Indians and a few frontier cities and inland capitals. In this vast jungle, without railroads or motor roads and broken only by Amazon river tributaries, 1t is estimated there are from one or two to six or 10 native rubber trees to the acre in some regions.
 AN UNKNOWN LAND
 The regions aren't known and the location of the trees in the regions aren't known. Hunters have to be flown in or be sent up streams in canoes to locate the trees, then build camps and tap the trees, waiting patiently for the latex to flow, then gather it and get it back down stream. By river transport this sometimes takes as long as four months for a round trip.
 How much rubber can be got out of all this development? The Baruch report puts the imports from all sources availble to the United States = IS countries in South and Central America, Liberia and Ceylon-at 53,000 tons up to the end of 1943. That may not seem like much when compared to the military demand of 631,000 tons for 1943. But this less than 10 percent native rubber is important because at the present time rub- Der technology demands that sym thetic rubber be mixed with mini mum of 10 per cent natural rubber to make tires that will wear as well as those made with natural rubber alone.
 The United States now has in stockpile something over 500,000 tons of native rubber, imported be- fore the Japs cut off supplies from the Orient. At the end of 1943 there will be an estimated 100,0 ,000 tons of this stockpile left. The big job of the Amazon valley and Gen. tral America is therefore resolved into building up deliveries for 1944 and the years after that, unless someone comes along with new process that will make all-synthetic rubber tires as good as all-natural- rubber tires.
 How much will this native rub Der cost? Twenty-Five million dol lars has been earmarked by the U. s. government for this devolp- ment, though rot ali of that sum need be spent. Prices being offered to the native contractors serin- gueiroS-who recruit the labor gangs and do the work-Jare in- tended to be high enough to en- courage steady production. Top prices being offered in the Amazon are 45 cents pound for the best grades of hevea rubber, B cents for castilloa, and relatively lower prices for the of grades.
 TREMENDOUS TASK
 Counting in the money that must be invested in setting up the camps, moving in the labor, keeping them supplied in part by air freight and possibly moving some of the rubber out by air, the cost of the rubber laiG down in the United States may run to 75 cents a pound.
 Major Doves idea that by offer ing $l pound as the price in Latin America, the natives would swarm into the iungles and come out of the bu7hes with Is million tons of rubber can be considered imprac- tical for several reasons:
 First, when the natives are of- fered $1 a pound or more for rub Der, they work for two days, then take siesta for two weeks. The 45-cent price is high enough for a profit, low enough to keep 'em working.
 Second. by steady work, it is estimated that one tapper can gather as much as one ton of rub- Der in year. There are few rub- Der tappers now working In the jungles. Brazil's production in 193s was only 10000 tons, indicating 20,- 900 tappers for the entire two mil- lion square miles of country. If 1t is possible to move in l50,000 people, if the jungle can be licked, malaria casualties held down and every worker kept going at maximum rate. the most that could be pro-