The weekly Alaska citizen., 1917-11-05

think first, "Is it safe?" urged by
 Dr. Holmes, has grown into a na-
 uonal policy of conserving the hu-
 man values in all of our great in-
 dustries, as being the most precious
 part of our national equipment
 MINERAL WASTES uEssENEO BY
 THE BUREAU OF MINES In mineral waste. the national loss
 is estimated to be not less than $1.- 100000 a day. This loss for the most part is not of such nature that it may be considered to repre- sent deferred use of resources, but stands for total permanent
 loss of national wealth. There was.
 as long ago as 1911, an annual loss of 200,O00,000 tons of soft cuals. SO.- 100000 tons of anthracite, and 4S0.- 0O000,000 cubic feet of natural gas per annum. Mineral losses are con sidered as national losses for the
 reason that the mineral products of
 the country. becoming articles for interstate commerce. are used by the people of all the States quite regard less of their source We cannot expect the individual operator to i bear the cost of waste prevention
 for the reason that waste prevention with him Is a question of tempo rary profits, and his temporary pro fits are. in some cases, greater by virtue of his following wasteful meth ods. With both the community and
 the nation the case is often quite different, and they must safeguard their own permanent welfare.
 But while there are cases, as in
 the waste of natural gas. coal, and other important resources, in which the temporary profits of the indi-
 Eidual may not coincide with the more permanent public welfare, in such cases it is the duty and the purpose of the Bureau of Mines to show, if possible, how the public welfare can be protected by decreas- ing the hazards and waste, without meanwhile destroying personal ini- tiative and the profits of individual enterprise. And it is certain that the broad and fundamental research es conducted by the Bureau cannot fail to confer in one way or an other, increasing benefits on the in dividual prospector, miner, and mine owner, as well as on the general public
 Some important results have come from the Bureaus investigations Ct the problems of mineral waste. One of the most notably beneficent re suits has been the lessening of waste in natural gas In the single State of Oklahoma, in single gas and oil field. in a single year, there has been a saving of highest grade fuei oil, through the suggestion of an en- gineer of the Bureau, valued at more than s1O,OO0.0OO.
 The Bureau of Mines has investi- gated well drilling methods and pub lished and distributed descriptions of approved methods of drilling wells that encounter gas under high pressure and of eXtinguishing burn ing oil or gas wells, and it has also devised and demonstrated a practi cal process for drilling through DOT ous formations by which waste of gas in sands overlying oil sands can be stopped and the invasion and ruin of many gas and oil sands by use of this process in a single State it is estimated that saving of nat ural gas worth $15,0O0,000 was eff fected in a few months.
 A large proportion of the oil in the underground reservoirs is not recovered by operating methods now in general use, the recoverable per centage being estimated at from 25 to 85 per cent. according to local conditions. me possibility or con siderably increasing the total recov- cry has been demonstrated, and the Bureau is now endeavoring to show the operator that certain methods it approves will increase the amount of oil and gas recovered and market ed, and thus increase the operators total profits. That this means good dollars and cents to the oil men has been shown by recent action of operators in producing field in Oklahoma, who asked the Bureau of Mines to select an inspector, the producers to pay his salary and ex- penses, simply to point out and show them these means.