Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-06-26


demand for all the oil likely to be
developed in this field for long time
to come, even if the stage Of the re-
fined product should never be reached.
1t is said that although the output of
100000 barrels in 1880 to over 72,-
10000 in 1900. still all of this mass
of product has been readily absorbei
into the correspondingly enlarged uses
found for it, over rs per cent of it |
going into fuel alone. And that the
demand has more than kept pace with
the supply is shown by the increase
of price at the wells in Russia from
35 cents barrel in 1897, to 70 cents
two years later; the percentage of in
crease of use for fuel purposes alone
in the last six years is about 900, ac-
cording to reports of the Russian gov
ernment. Oil has quite displaced coal
as a fuel throughout Southern Russia
and the Caucasus region.
The experience of California in the
same direction has been even more
pronounced. The oil yield of that
State last year reached 100000 bar
rels,--nearly three times what it was
in 1896. When it became certain in
1897 that it could be utilized as steam
fuel, the price there was but % cents
barrel; by 1900 this had risen to a
dollar, and at that price the output
of the State is largely insufficient
to supply the Southern Pacific railroad
!, alone when all it's engines shall have
. been equipped for the use of it. A
large portion of this road is in Texas,
, and its locomotives are now, l believe,
using Beaumont oil with great sue
cess, so, that, with the pipelines to
Port Arthur and the storage tanks,
now about completed, the absorption
. of the product of this enormous field
into actual world consumption may
be said to have already begun.
From these facts, and others equal
ly convincing, 1 am satisfied that
there is not likely to be any overpro-
duction in this territory,-not even
enough to keep the price below high
ly remunerative figure. And from
what / have gathered here today,
conclude also that wherever Pitts.
burg coal brings more than $3.50 a
ton, the Beaumont oil, as fuel prop
osition, will compete with it and beat
it in the market, even in the lake
region.
should have said before that moi
the least remarkable phase of this
particular yield is claimed to be found
in the great thickness of the ol-bear
= ing strata, as found by the driller.
:. in going down; the oil sand is said t.
be over a hundred feet through
making a tenth of the average deptf
of bore. This high percentage Of OF
Z. saturation is claimed to be withou
parallel in all former experience, anC
seems to justify the vast productive
= ness of the wells thus far drilled in.
Before leaving home / had beart
some adverse criticism of Texas cor
poration law and Texas policy towar'
foreign capital and enterprise, an,
fears were expressed that the assume,
hostility might discourage investment
here. Nothing could well be farthe
from the truth. The laws here ar
N quite as favorable to investors as jus
+ tice to creditors win permit, and full
as liberal as those of the Norther
States generally. Capital from an
source seems to be welcomed,
daily so-and is abundantly saft
guarded, both by law and the publ
u sentiment of the State. AS Texa
is herself perhaps the most enterpril
ing and progressive of the Souther
commonwealths, she is not utterly d,
I'd pendent upon foreign aid for tn
rapid and profitable development of he
- resources: nevertheless she seems t
= be glad to get it, and the two appea
to be working together here, quite i
harmony and to the certain advantag
Of both.
l believe, however, that the Standar
Oil company is an exception to thi
open-armed reception of outsiders
It, and this, l understand. is owing to th
fact that here. as in Ohio, that col
poration is under the ban of the la,
" for its past misdeeds, and that som
of it's officers, at least are in COZ