Mexico weekly ledger., 1916-02-03

With gasoline at IS cents per gal
Ion and the price steadily rising many
of the automobiles around Mexico
have been stored on account of the
bad weather. According to the state
licenses issued Audrain has 361 auto
mobiles. Garage men say that about
a third of the cars in Mexico have been
stored and they think many will re-
main stored until gasoline smoke
ceases to smell like a nickle. However
the sale of ears this spring promises
to make a record regardless of cost Of
"gas."
Last summer gasoline was 8 VI
cents at the lowest ebb. Winter gas
oline is naturally and always is high
err. But the government has already
started an investigation Of the causes
for the present increase to 1S and 80
cents.
1t is a great mistake, however, to
imagine as many see to do, that the
high price of gasoline is of interest TO
the motorist only. II is safe to say
that it bears hardest on people who
use internal-combuston engines to OPP
crate engines for saving labor en- the
farm. In some parts Of the country
the farmer who does not W some
sort Of nternal-combustion engine is
the exception.
Motoring tho has not been as pop
t.lar as in the months just gone. Gas
oline has become one Of the items of
up-keep TO the automobile en-
thusiasts especially in larger cit
les where it has SCARED so high.
In St. Louis gasoline is 81 cents, in
Kansas City it is 20 cents. Missouri
has 76,462 automobiles that are wait
ing for the price to go down. Boone
county has 635 machines, Galloway
357, Monroe 1929, Montgomery 24O,
and Pike 403. And gasoline is still
going up.
Ire government investigators an
nounce that they find no shortage in
the crude oil from which gasoline IS
made, and that reserve stocks on
hands are the largest in the history Of
the country.
DR.. Rittman of the geological sur
vey has perfected a system of treat
ing crude oil by which twice as much
gasoline is obtainable fhan by any
other system heretofore available TO
the independent %refiner, The Rittman
process has been tried out on a COM
mercial scale and reported a success.
But if gasoline rises in price regard
less of the supply of crude oil there is
no reason to believe that it will not do
so in spite of the supply Of gasoline
itself under the same conditions.
Rittman himself, however, is quoted
as saying that the high price OF gas
oline is purely a matter Of demand
and supply. He may be a genius in
gasoline making without knowing
much about gasoline prices; but his
statements are interesting.
First, says he, the Cushing Pool oil
has fallen off 100000 barrels a day Of
the best gasoline produced. Not all
oils will make much gasoline by the
ordinary methods. Second, our ex-
ports of gasoline have been tripled'
Third, the demand is growing incred-
IDLY all the time.
-Four thousand new automobiles are
added to the consumers a day. This
adds $4,000 to the domestic demand
every "a hours.
There are 100000 gasoline engines
in use on farms.
There are 100000 motor boats us
ing gasoline.
There are 100000 farms on thu
waiting list for engines!
The gasoline engines in use in tn
United States represent 55,OO0,00
horse-power-two and a half time
the steam power of locomotives
stationary engines and all!
Something must be done. We mus
find soma other fuel. we must ge