Tropics v. Ford

Where government is secure and civilization high, where engineers can command and skilled workers perform, where mass-production pays, there has Henry Ford succeeded. But even as the tropics and all the vexatious conditions they imply have conquered the genius of many another white man, so last week did they seem to have conquered Henry Ford, symbol of System, Efficiency, Profits. In the rich, deep Amazon Valley, the jungle was reported slowly closing in on a Ford enterprise.

When the commercial demand for rubber first commenced, the happiest country was Brazil, home of the rubber plant which grows in wild abundance along the Amazon. In 1912 rubber exports from Brazil were second only to coffee, consisted of 43,000 tons with a value of $78,000,000. Brazil seemed entering a new era of prosperity; great public works were begun. But never again was 1912 equalled in Brazil. For in 1876 an Englishman, Sir Henry Wickham, had taken some rubber seeds to London, thence sent them to Ceylon. And by 1900 the Far East had exported four tons of rubber; in 1910, 8,000 tons. In 1913 the Far East, producing rubber on plantations, exported more than Brazil. Since then increased competition and lower rubber prices have practically annihilated Brazilian rubber.

In 1927 Henry Ford undertook to grow rubber in Brazil. His idea was not to use the wild trees, but to clear the jungle, adopt the plantation method, use selected seeds. Great were the tales of what Ford Initiative plus Ford Ingenuity plus Ford Resource plus the fertile Amazon soil would produce.

From the outset, the Ford company met with difficulties. The concession he bought was an old one and contained certain clauses which angered Brazilians, made a political issue out of the enterprise. Suspicion increased so soon as he paid more than the average wage-scale. He encountered difficulties in exporting seeds from other Brazilian states to Para, where his plantation is. Few of the rubber trees planted have survived.

Chief of the difficulties however has been with native labor. If orientals could be imported, rubbermen think the project might succeed. As it is, even the high Ford wage-scale has not attracted more than 2,000 where 5,000 are wanted. Riots and strikes have broken out; hospitals have been and are busy. A writer in India-Rubber Journal (London) last fortnight said liquor consumption on the plantation has increased 1,000%, a cabaret has opened adjacent to it. Rubbermen last week said the Ford plantation's closing down was only a matter of days.

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