as the price falls the uses of rubber become more numerous. One can
think of a thousand ways in which rubber could be used if it were only
cheap enough. In the form of pads and springs and tires it would do much
to render traffic noiseless. Even the elevated railroad and the subway
might be opened to conversation, and the city made habitable for mild
voiced and gentle folk. It would make one's step sure, noiseless and
springy, whether it was used individualistically as rubber heels or
collectivistically as carpeting and paving. In roofing and siding and
paint it would make our buildings warmer and more durable. It would
reduce the cost and permit the extension of electrical appliances of
almost all kinds. In short, there is hardly any other material whose
abundance would contribute more to our comfort and convenience. Noise is
an automatic alarm indicating lost motion and wasted energy. Silence is
economy and resiliency is superior to resistance. A gumshoe outlasts a
hobnailed sole and a rubber tube full of air is better than a steel
tire.




IX

THE RIVAL SUGARS


The ancient Greeks, being an inquisitive and acquisitive people, were
fond of collecting tales of strange lands. They did not care much
whether the stories were true or not so long as they were interesting.
Among the marvels that the Greeks heard from the Far East two of the
strangest were that in India there were plants that bore wool without