Rubber

Among the numerous brokers in Manhattan, the rubber brokers must not be forgotten. These functionaries handle sales for future delivery in crude rubber much in the same way that grain or cotton brokers sell or buy futures in their respective commodities.

Before crude rubber soared* in price recently, a number of speculators sold rubber for delivery July 31. They had no rubber, but they "figured" that by that date they could buy it for delivery from incoming steamers. Meantime the ships--the Kansas, the Siberian Prince and the Menelaus-- were crowding on steam to reach New York on the closing July date with their cargo of 6,500 tons of crude rubber. They had come from Singapore via the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, and during the closing days of July were racing across the Atlantic while the impatient brokers and "short-sellers" figuratively paced the New York docks in anxiety. Messages on the radio urged them frantically on. The Menelaus docked in Boston July 28, safely within the time set, and thus reached New York before the July rubber contracts lapsed. Soon after the Siberian Prince arrived. But the Kansas was two days late for the July deliveries. However, the first two ships held enough crude rubber to take care of the "short interest" in a satisfactory manner.

The three boats contained more rubber than the entire port stocks in London, which amounted to only 3,987 tons. For June, imports of rubber into the U. S. amounted altogether to 31,175 tons of crude.

*Due to restrictions imposed by the British Government upon the amount to be produced in British possessions.