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Show RUBBER MAKES CONTACT BETWEEN ASIA AND U. S. The fascination which tho strnngo lands of tho Far East havo held for the nvcrago American is taking on a more tangible form, now that travel and business arc bringing Asia and the United Stntcs into closer contact. No article of commerce is doing more to bring this country into closer touch with tho mystic east than rubber. rub-ber. The rapid riso to supremacy in the production of crude rubber of tho islands of tho Indian Ocean, combined com-bined with tho fact that America consumes con-sumes nearly three-quarters of nil tho rubber grown there, hns tjiven many Americans nn opportunity to peep behind be-hind tho scenes and become acquainted acquain-ted with tho lands nnd people? of that distant quarter of tho globe. Although tho wholo equatorial belt in that section is dotted with rubber plantations, representing a capital investment in-vestment of nearly half a billion dollars, dol-lars, tho thoughts of Americans naturally nat-urally center on Sumntra whero ono of America's greatest corporations has established a plantation so vast in area and so highly developed that it stands out as the greatest single plantation in the world. This is tho plantation of tho Unites States Rubber Rub-ber company, comprising soventy square miles of growing tree3, nn enterprise en-terprise marked throughout by a magnitude mag-nitude and efficiency worthy of the best American traditions. By producing its own rubber the company is in a position to establish a uniformity in its manufactured product, pro-duct, especially United Stntcs Tires, such as rubber manufacturers have long craved. |