Evening star., 1943-11-17
Large Postwar Problem Seen
In Conflict of Rubber Interests

East? These plantations, which
have been bearing for hardly more
than 40 years, brought enormous
wealth to a few Britishers and
Dutchmen and bare existence to
millions Of brown people who
worked them. The story of the
growth OF Far Eastern rubber is a
fascinating chapter of economic his
tory.
Price Fell TO 20 Cents.
In competition with wild rubber
from the Amazon, the Far Eastern
planters forced down the world
price in 1920 to 20 cents a pound
which compared with q peak of So
for Amazonian rubber in 1912 before
the Eastern product had come onto
the market. The rich planters felt,
however, that that was too low.
Under the Stevenson Act, spon-
sored by the British, an effort was
made to bring the production and
sale OF plantation rubber under
strict control-to limit the amount
sent into world trade. For a time
this was highly successful. In 1925
the price was pushed up to more
than 81 a pound.
But the preSSures were too great
The high price stimulated a brief
revival of the Amazonian rubber
trade. Actually, however, and this
is highly significant, the market ap-
pears to have been broken by the
refusal OF small independent plant
ers In the Far East to agree to the
control scheme. These were Chi
nese, Malayans and Javsnese. who
by dint Of the most phenomenal
economies, had managed to obtain
small rubber holdings, and they
were determined that the big plant
ers should not squeeze them out,
Profits Were Enormous.
There are many, including some
here IN the Amazon Valley, who be-
lieve that it will never be possible
to restore the Far Eastern rubber
economy. Many of the planters
made 300 or 400 per cent profit in a
year. In Malaga they paid an in
come tax as low as per cent Just
before the war. 1t was a paradise
fools paradise as it turned out.
since the tide of wealth induced a
wholly false sense of security. By
contrast, at the peak of rubber
prices, men were paid % cents a day
to work on the plantations and
women 10 cents. The four freedoms
may not bring about millennium,
but it would seem that their impact
must be such as to reject for the
future any such startling inequi-
ties
Here in the Amazon the Rubber
Development Corp. has quickened
new hope for Amazonian rubber
Although his funds have been Sc
verely limited, DR. Felisberto Ca
margo, director of the Institute
Argronomico do Norte, near Belem
believes that he has developed a
disease-resistant seeding of Hevea
brasilensis, the native rubber tree
Archibald Johnston. director OF
Ford's rubber plantation at Belterra
halfway between Belem and Ma
naus, agrees.
Sees Scent Rubber.
Furthermore. DR.. Camargo be-
lieves that with the new high-yield-
ing, disease-resistant trees he is de-
veloping. it will be possible to pro-
duce rubber in the Amazon at a
profit at 8 cents pound. And this,
he Is convinced. will make it pos
sible to compete with the Far East
even though At times Far Eastern
rubber has brought as little as 3
cents pound on the world market.
DR.. Camargo is assuming in all this
that an unlimited supply Of labor at
20 cents a day will not be available
to the planters Of the Far East after
the war.
His long-term objective is small
holdings independently owned. On
40 acres planted in high yielding