El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-02-01
WASPEFUL AUTOS
RAISE "GAS" COST
ChcaBneEs of Product Has Made Motor
lists CareIess-Drivers Can
Lower Cost.

That the cost Of gasoline rests, TO a
greatest extent, on each individual
motorlst, IS asserted by a leading auto
mobile maker.
Il have recently noted several ar
ucIeS, quoting automobile manufac-
turerS and others as deprecating the
recent increases in the price of gasO-
line said he. Some have even pro-
fessed to see, in the advance, a menace
to automobile popularity and industry.
AS a matter OF fact, the difference
amounts to but fraction of a cent for
each nile per car and should not in a
seasons running OF 5000 miles, exceed
a total of S25.
"On the other hand. it is high time
that motordom should consider the
debt 1t owes the big oil companies
without whose magnificent Organiza-
ton motoring would never have
achieved its present popularity.
Before the internal-cOm bustion
motor, gasoline was virtually a by
product on sale at central stations for
perhaps ten cents a gallon. The cost
OF delivery fell on the buyer and often
OIL companies were glad to sell the
gasoline at almost any price, for this
enabled them to manufacture at 4
profit greater quantities of oils
greaSes and lubricants
But gasoline motor cars multiplied
and eventually the demand for fuel
equalled that for the other products
A year or so ago. the old balance was
reversed. Now the demand for e-as q
line greatly exceeds that for the
staple oils and gTeases. And. in place
Of the old method OF distribution, the
OIL companies have established q svs-
TEN which covers the entire country
bringing to the very door of each
garage refined product which has
OFTEN Travelled thousands of miles
Wnen one considers the cost of driIl-
ing, pumping. transportation. refining
and delivering, he must admit that
mere is no manufactured product sold
= CL-saply as gasoline Even at its
present price, 1t costs the consumer
less than an equal quantity of most
brands Of spring water
When the demand for gasoline came
TO exceed that for the other crude-oiI
products, the manufacturers faced q.
dilemma They could not produce
gasoline and throw away the other
productS; such process would have
made the fuel prOhibitive in cost To
advance the price of gasoline and to
lower the price of the other products
was the only available means of re-
gaming the balance So now we nav
more for gasoline and less for oils
and grsAS msttsr Of fact
wasted gasoline; it has been so cheap
A mite economy VIII hurt none Of US
automobile manufacturers have
Dulit WaSteful cars-cars with motors
much larger than necessity demanded;
cars that lacked efficiency. But the
manufacture is seeing the light The
recent New York show emphasized
new tendency tendency toward
motors that yield more in miles Der
gallon But these cars win fail to
save gasoline unless their owners do
their part
Just as a WastefuI car raises the
cost OF gasoline, 50 every motorist who
falls to make his car efficient makes
fuel cost more Owners Of automobiles
owe it to each other to start a united
emort, keeping track of gall0R-miles
watching carburetiOn, learning the art
Of controlling a car more by the clutch
and less by the brakes. A campaign
along this line viii save enough gaso-
line to more than balance the recent
increase in cost.
Our office files contain hundreds Of
letters from tourists whose cars have
averaged from IS to IS miles per gal
lon on ordinary country roads, and a
car should yield at least 10 miles a
gallon in city traffic. where there are
many more starts and stops. If motor
lists generally would regard these aver
ages as standard, and would strive to
exceed them, the condition would be
imme diately relieved.
"The cost Of gasoline win advance
no further than the necessities of the
oil companies production require.
These necessities are. to a large degree, |
in the hands Of motorists themselves"