The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-12-18

and used. OF the two hundred and odd
ready been classified as coal bearing, over
!, 900 900 as probably carrying oil, and
7aGabie Discovers made in Recent Years as
affecting the public domain is that the
semiarid regions may become abundantly
productive under dry farming methods.
Alaska.
The Territory of Alaska, containing
perhaps 400,000,000 acres, is now the great
body of public domain 1t is heavily min
eralized and is land of unknown possi-
erected a mill of 5000 tons daily capacity.
with ore in sight to run this mill for 30
years
| The waters that flow idly to the sea
could be made to support not less than
! 100000 600 people if turned upon the land
that otherwise will remain pasture land
or altogether worthless. The demonstra-
rain can be made more fruitful than those
where the rainfall is abundant. Land and
water have; the problem of bringing
| them together is one only of money.
Scientists.
| When the war in Europe. shut off GER
tain chemical supplies, one of our chemists
Mr. Rittman, found new process which
has been given to the public by which
benzol and toluol, the foundation of anfline
| dyes and explosives, and gasoline may be
made from crude petroleum. Mr. Parsons
and Mr.. Moore have devised and proved
carnotfte ores. An oil expert, Mr.. Pollard,
was put to the task of saving the billions
/ q
| from the oil wells of Oklahoma, and was
successful. Mr.. Cottrell has devised q
method of taking solids and liquids out of
smelter smoke, such as suIphuric acid,
| arsenic, zinc, and lead
| Inventions.
During the past 80 years the people of
| the United States have uttered two-th1rdS
| of all the revolutionary epoch making in
ventions of the world, ranging from the
! Wrfght's aeroplane and high-speed steel
Each day we issue an average OF ZoO iette 81,
patent to American inventors, ana the
number of inventions is increasing with
the years.
There are over 10000 900 boys and girls
| in the public schools of the United States
These, then, are the assets OF the onlted
m fs and waters and mines, in
ventors and chemists and engineers, ana
new generation coming on % tnrons ~ ann
nails of peace
Lane Helping the West.
Two years ago 1 presented in my report
what might be termed a program OF IN
ternal development with respect TO land
railroad into the interior of Alaska; coal
act extending the time within which pay;
ments We're to be made by water users ana
under which land would be forced into use
a water-power bill governing the use of
public lands for hydrOelectrfc development ;
a general development bill providing Tor
a practicable method of disposing of our
oil, gas, coal, phosphate, and potash with.
his program the larger portion has been
adopted. but the last two failed of passage
in the senate after having been sueeess t1ca
west help in its own Development The
royalties from oil, gas, coal and ph9s-
yeloped on public lands should be used for
the retaining of the arid country ana then
The country needs the other bills
urgently, not as a matter of mere local de-
The on Wen as Placer Claim.
AS to oil and gas, the house committee
teal man engaged in the industry offered
any objection to the plan proposed. The
been taken up. is to be characterized by no
potter word than as a plain misfit- OIL Is
of feet below the surface of the earth, yet
the law applicable to its acquisition b Is the
covery of superficial minerals.
An Invaluable Mineral.
There is another charge TO be made
against the existing law more serious than
full. If the land is leased some control can
be exercised over the manner of develop
wasted by being allowed to flow into the
streams, by being mixed with water, or by
am told, in any. other mining: and pc
troleum is priceless resource, for it can
again on the soil from which they have
been taken: But how can petroleum be
produced? 1t has taken the ages for nature
to distill it in her subterranean laboratory.
We do not even know her process. We
may IND substitute Tor II, Dut have not
1t is practically the one lubricant of the
world today. Not a railroad wheel turns
without its way being Smoothed by it.
We can make light and heat by hydro
electric power, but the great turbines move
on bearings that SmOthered in De-
troleum. From it we get the quick-eXplod-
ing gas which is to the motor and the
airship what air is to the human body.
To industry, agriculture, commerce, and the
pleasures of life petroleum is now essential.
Therefore to waste it is a crime. An alb
soIute government would prohibit a bar
rel of it being used for fuel before every
drop of kerosene gasoline, and other in
it. How much of it there is in the United
States knows. The Geological
Survey has made maximum estimate of
% 600 100000 barrels, which sounds like an
inexhaustible supply But at the rate that
it is now being consumed in this country
alone (265, 900, 900 barrels n YEAR, this does
not mean indefinite supply, and from
the rapid exhaustion of some fields it is
manifest that there be real an
Proclamation of the oil in our lands What
in its crude state to compete with coal as
fuel and the government should not pro-
mote its being wasted by applying to it
archaic laws under which waste Is a GER
tainty.
The Test of n Democracy.
There is an evolution in d new nations
life quite as interesting as that in the life of
a man. We pass through stages of de
velopment from the simple and earlier
period when food is the one thing desired
stages where first we begin to deal with
the easily handled things and later reach
the point where mind has a controlling
part in all that is done. The pioneer builds
his cabin and turns his cattle to Craze