Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1910-01-22
NATURAL GAS IN
NEXT FIVE YEARS
Mayor Says He Knows Facts Which
Lead Him to Expect 1t.
BALTIMORE LOGICAL MARKET

Possible, He Says, II Consolidated
Refuses Terms, But With Their
Vast Holdings of Natural Gas Lands
They VIII Want to Sell.
Baltimore, Nd, Jan. I4.--That Bal.
timore will have natural gas in FIVE
years is the declaration of Mayor Ma
hool. The Mayor says that he has In
formation which he Is not privileged
to disclose, tending to bear out this
belief, but says that the known facts.
familiar to everyone who understands
the situation would show this clearly.
I'm the first place." said the Mayor,
the Standard Oil Company owns enor-
nous fields OF natural gas which have
been hardly touched. In addition, the
company has just added enormously
to its holdings of natural gas lands
This means, OF course, that the com
pany wants to sell the gas and turn
Ii into money.
The next point Is where they will
sell 1t. Here is the real foundation
for my belief, outside OF the confiden.
tial information have alluded to, Bal.
timore Is the logical place for the
Standard OIL Company to sell its gas,
for number OF reasons.
In the first place, all OF the cities
within easy reach OF gas fields, those
lying In the Middle Western region,
are already supplied with gas. and at
prices not quite half, some CT them,
the rate at which 1t is proposed by
the Consolid lted company for Balti-
more. In Pittsburg, for instance, nat
ural gas sold at 81 IL cents thou
sand by two competing concerns,
while another company seems to pros
per by selling artificial gas In com
petition with the natural product.
in Cleveland the price is 80 cents,
and the rates range around those fig
ures, getting lower as the distance
from the gas fields decrease. Obvious
ly market where there was such
lively competition and such low prices.
Ii would be better judgement to seek
fresh market, where there would be
no competition and where higher
prices could be obtained The officials
of the Standard Oil, whatever may be
their demerits, have never been CEN
sured for their lack of judgement.
Now granting that 1t would be bet
ter to bring the gas to the East, II re-
mains to be seen which city the Stand
ard Oil interests would pick out to
sell this gas. They answered this
question themselves by picking out
Baltimore
But suppose. being disappointed in
the terms they desired, though this is
OF course to be doubted, for 1t is ap-
parent that it was the Consolidated
Gas Company and not the Standard
Oil Company which was disappointed
in the terms, the interests would go
further. Near Baltimore is Washing
ton, while to the northeast of US lies
Philadelphia. Now 1t Is apparent that
Washington would not consume
enough gas to make the construction
OF pipe line profitable. 1t Is a small
city and not manufacturing or even
commercial city. Philadelphia is
80 miles farther away from the fields
than Baltimore. Suppose It should be
decided to furnish gas to Philadelphia
would 1t not be folly to carry the gas
past Baltimore and refuse to sell us
any?
Suppose that the lines were con-
struoted to Philadelphia, aud that the
people OF Baltimore should want to
purchase some of the gas, Is 1t to be
supposed for one minute that the OPP
position of the Consolidated Gas Com
pany would stand in the way? | am
of the opinion that the people would
raise such a clamor that franchise
would be granted to "a new company
for the purpose of selling the natural
gas to our manufacturers at least,
and thus force the Consolidated Com
pany either to come in and sell the
gas itself or else endure the active
competition OF natural gas with arti-
fetal.
''Of course 1t stands to reason that
it would be better for all concerned
to let the Consolidated Gas Company
handle the business, but without doubt
new concern would be formed, If the
Consolidated refused to take the
chance, under the conditions have
mentioned"
y.