Besides this the plantation rubber is a cleaner and more even
product, carefully coagulated by acetic acid instead of being smoked
over a forest fire. It comes in pale yellow sheets instead of big black
balls loaded with the dirt or sticks and stones that the honest Indian
sometimes adds to make a bigger lump. What's better, the man who milks
the rubber trees on a plantation may live at home where he can be
decently looked after. The agriculturist and the chemist may do what the
philanthropist and statesman could not accomplish: put an end to the
cruelties involved in the international struggle for "black gold."
The United States uses three-fourths of the world's rubber output and
grows none of it. What is the use of tropical possessions if we do not
make use of them? The Philippines could grow all our rubber and keep a
$300,000,000 business under our flag. Santo Domingo, where rubber was
first discovered, is now under our supervision and could be enriched by
the industry. The Guianas, where the rubber tree was first studied,
might be purchased.
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