Items of Interest March 31, 1917 Issue

Items of Interest

The United States is now consuming nearly two thirds of the world's supply of India rubber. The exports of this commodity from the various producing areas in 1916 were approximately four hundred and forty-three million pounds, while the United States in that year imported about two hundred and seventy million pounds. There has been a great increase in the supply, and this has come entirely from the rubber plantations of the Orient, while the forest product has declined in the mean time. This increase has apparently prevented any advance in price. The export price to the United States averaged in 1910 over a dollar a pound, in 1911 eighty-nine cents, in 1912 eighty-four cents, 1913 sixty-six cents, 1914 and 1915 fifty cents, and in 1916 fifty-nine cents. Plantations now supply about three fourths of the world's rubber output. They are, stated in the order of their contribution to the world's output, the Malayan Peninsula, the Dutch East Indies, Borneo, Ceylon, Burma, and India. The forest supplies are chiefly from Brazil, but smaller quantities come from other South American countries and from the Kongo valley in Africa. The capital invested in the rubber manufacturing industries in the United States is over three hundred million dollars.

For nearly five years the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse, N. Y., has been carrying on a wood utilization service which has bent its efforts toward developing a better market for forest products in New York. Over four hundred wood using industries and manufacturers of forest products are cooperating actively. Only about 50 per cent of all lumber is used either in rough or finished form. The other half is sawed up into a great variety of small pieces for use as furniture, musical instruments, woodenware, fixtures, and a thousand and one other uses. The College of Forestry is urging manufacturers to offer to the trade the small pieces formerly burned or wasted, so that those who can use these small pieces to advantage may not be forced to cut up larger and more valuable lumber.

Hearings on the suit by the Government to dissolve the United States Steel Corporation have been held before the Supreme Court. The principal charge of the prosecution is domination by the corporation in the iron and steel industry. It is said to furnish more than one half of the national production and to control prices. By its formation in 1901, the Government alleges, competition was illegally stifled. The defense is that the organization has actually operated beneficially, has not oppressed competitors or the public, and is not illegal merely because of its size and combined assets.

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