Restriction, Price Levels and Substitutes Engage Attention The introduction of restriction in 1934 removed some of the more urgent and immediate problems of the rubber producing industry. During the last five years, therefore, the industry has been able to devote increased attention to more fundamental issues. Any long-term policy based on the assumption of permanent output res-friction must necessarily be cangerous; so also must be any attitude of complacence towards the development of synthetic substitutes for rubber says "The Financial News.
The basic problems of the industry are to bridge the wide gap between potential production and current normal consumption, and to meet the competition of substitutes. The solution is to be found in so reorganizing the industry that.a product of more standardized form and of improved quality—and even one possessing new qualities—can be obtained at considerably lower cost than is possible today. The solution is easily stated, but will be achieved only slowly and at the cost of much effort. Some of the main avenues of approach were outlined by Mr. J. L. Milne at the meeting of the Rubber Growers' Association on April 21. He asserted that the most important problems relate to the administration of estates, and that it is the duty of producers to effect as many improvements as possible in the production of their commodity. This is a primary condition for placing and maintaining the industry on a sound and progressive basis, for in the ability to supply abundant quantities of cheap rubber lies the chief hope of materially extending existing markets and developing new uses.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.