HIGH PRICE OF RUBBER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10685, 31 December 1925, Page 8

HIGH PRICE OF RUBBER.

CQMPLAINTS IN AMERICA. I BRITISH ACTION BLAMED. (Per Press Association--Copyright.) WASHINGTON, December 29. Mr H. C. Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, in an. interview, voiced an urgent plea for the co-operation of American people in "Hooverising" rubber. Ho declared that the United States would be demanding eight dollars a bushel for wheat and seventy-five cents a pound for cotton if it followed the example of Britain in boosting the prices of rubber. "Our job is to use as little rubber as possible," Mr Hoover declared. "I have eidisted the support of the automobile makers and users in a campaign to reduce rubber consumption. We are not in the midst of a genuine rubber famine, but a purely artificial one created by production restrictions for the purpose of advancing prices." He added that the plan arranged was:

(lj To discourage bankers from giving American credit for the support of British combinations.

(2) A systematic campaign of conservation of rubber when prices were extortionate.

(3) To stimulate the use of substitutes. (4) To stimulate the production of rubber in countries where price-fixing is not so likely. ' : (5) To institute properly-controlled machinery to prevent American rubber buyers from competing against each other. ; v