Ford Rubber

Rubber, like other commodities, enjoys an elastic market. But potent manufacturers who buy raw rubber (like Harvey Samuel Firestone and Henry Ford) would rather raise it than stretch for it. In 1926, Mr. Firestone bought 1,000,000 acres in Liberian jungleland from which, in nine years, he will get his own rubber for his own tires. Now Mr. Firestone's close friend, Henry Ford, has adopted a similar policy.

Having already experimented in the Philippines, Burma, Mexico, Mr. Ford despatched Professor Carl Larue of the University of Michigan to investigate last year in Brazil. Professor Larue reported favorably. Then Mr. Ford asked for and received a concession of between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 acres in Para, in the Amazon Valley, a black jungle along the Tapajos River, that crawls all the way from the River of Doubt to the Xingu River. Soon boa constrictors will slip down into the jungle centres; monkeys will set up a great chattering. Black Indians armed with heavy blades will slash down their one-time haunts to make way for future windshield wipers, floor mats, balloon tires. If Mr. Ford's plantation progresses in Brazil as Mr. Firestone's is progressing in Liberia, it should in ten years become a factor in the international rubber market.

Capitalized at $1,000,000 by Henry Ford, Edsel Ford and a few others of their organization, the Companhia Ford Expansao Industriale de Brazil agrees to plant a portion of the entire acreage in rubber every year until the whole jungle is industrialized. A fleet of steamships will make regular trips from the U. S. to Brazil. In time, a fleet of airplanes will do likewise.