The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-21
TO INCREASE OIL SUPPLY
By HOLLAND

By HO
 New York, August -tspecial.)-The
 best news of an industrial character which has come from Washington with in a few days is, according to the view
 Of leaders in the oil industry, the re-
 port that an agreement has been
 reached whereby the many millions or
 oil producing lands in California and in wyoming are to be opened to develop
 ment.
 When President Bedford of the Stand ard Oil company, speaking not as oil producer but as one of those associated with the government in perfecting preparations for the war, made an ap- peal to the owners of automobiles that they curtail their excursions and Joy
 riding so that the gasoline supply would
 not thereby be imperiled by those who
 sought it's use purely for pleasure, IL
 was the common understanding among oil producers that in this statement was
 a hint delicately expressed to the gov ernment itself For what avail would 1t be greatly to decrease the demand for gasoline by those who use automobileS
 
 known to contain vast quantities of pe-
 troleum were closed to the pioneers or t, the explorers President Bedford, Pres ident Sinclair and others in private con yersaton were reported to have fnci- mated that if the government would al | low the public domains to be open to ex- ploration and production, there probably would result in short time vastly ln- creased output of crude oil; in fact, enough of an increase to make any con- sideration of the limita tion of the use of gasoline for pleasure purposes of no importance.
 There remains, however, considerable constructive work to be done if produc- tion of oil in California and Wyoming is sufficient to avert the threatened crisis. All the oil producers know that consid- erable risk and great deal of expense are involved in prospecting for new oil properties The prospectors are men of expert qualifications. They expect to
 be well paid and it has been suggested l that it might be worth while as war emergency measure to grant prospectors subsidy or bounty, so that they could i feel assured that satisfactory remunera- I tion would come to them for their work | What the prospectors and oil producers l have been compelled to meet with in the way of obstacles is shown by their ! experience in wyoming. Surface indica- | tions were that there was a large sup ply of oil in Wyoming and the operators and prospectors dared to face exposure I and even the danger of loss of life and | in addition to this to pay large amounts | of money in order to ascertain whether | the Wyoming field was worthy of conn
 mercial consideration. They did discover that in certain parts of Wyoming there are very rich deposits of oil, but that | discovery was all the good it did for these lands were at once withdrawn by 1 the government and the money that was
 expended in prospecting was complete | loss.
 In addition to the great cost which will be entailed in prospecting in Cali
 fornia and Wyoming there Is also the heavy cost of drilling wells in locations which the prospectors are convinced
 gave fair promise. It costs twice as | drilling as was the case before the war began and in addition equipment and
 labor charges are much higher than they
 were four or five years ago.
 But the first step. if the serious in ] dustrial and business crisis which a th1 eatened shortage in oil portended is 1 to be averted was taken in Washing ton ] the other day when an agreement was reached whereby the oil lands of Cali fornia and Wyoming may be open to explorati and exploitation. One of the estimates is that between S00,000.000 and Ooo 900 900 barrels of crude oil can be
 obtained from these properties before they are exhausted. The government having taken this step the oil producers will now supplement the assistance
 given by the government for it is the understanding here that notwithstanding the heavy cost they are ready to begin the work of prospecting and drilling wells and providing tanks and pipe lines. Now that the government has lifted its hand from that part of the public do- main which is known to contain vast quantities of crue oil another lesson teaching the advantage of government aid instead of the dog-in-the-manger- policy Is learned by those who have read the reports which tell of the com merce of Alaska for the 12 months of the fiscal year which ended on June 30. In money value that commerce was little over st15,Oo0,00O. In the previous fiscal year the commerce of Alaska was of a money value of little under sloO0oO,o0o
 The export of newly mined gold from Alaska does not explain this increase for
 the value of the gold mined and ex'
 ported from the peninsular was little