New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-11
Fuel for Autos, Trucks, Aero.
planes and British Navy
To Be Available
IS Per Cent Increase
In Nation S Supply
Action Will Prevent Possible
Prohibition Of Use of
Pleasure Cars
From mo TriSuns Bureaul

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1o.-Opening
up of hundreds of thousands of acres
Of rich oil lands, including the famous
Number Two naval reserve, is assured
by an agreement just reached between
the opposing groups of Senator'S who,
by their differences, have held up oil
legislation for years and representa-
tives OF the Navy Department.
The development of these big oil
fields, known to be very rich, and which
were withdrawn from entry and de-
velopment by President Taft, will add,
it is estimated, not less than Is per
cent to the countrys oil production.
Senator's interested told The Tribune
correspondent to-day that this devel-
opment makes it practically certain
there will be 10 prohibition against
the use of automobiles for pleasure.
This development, they declare, also
solves the British navy's oil problem,
made acute by the situation in the
Tampico fields. 1t insures an adequate
supply of gasoene for the myriads Of
motor trucks which the army will need
and for the thousands of aeroplanes
which are to be part Of Americas
contribution to the war.
States Rights Men Surrender
The compromise represents sur
render on the part of the Senator'S who
have been fighting for years against
any recognition of the legality of the
Federal leasing system. The bill as
it is now drawn has the approval of
every Senator interested in oil legisla-
ton save two, Senator's Husting, Of
Wisconsin, and Norris, Of Nebraska.
The deadlock which President Wilson
failed to solve last year between the
House and Senate has been broken by
the complete surrender of the SEN
ators favoring state rights.
Senator Pittman, of Nevada, who
under the agreement has been given
charge of the bill by Chairman Myers
Of the Public Lands Committee, de-
clared to-day that the bill would pass
the Senate in three days after it was
taken up, due principally to the fact
that such Senators as Smoot, of Utah,
Shafroth and Thomas, of Colorado, and
Marx Smith, of Arizona, who have been
fighting the Federal leasing scheme for
years, have agreed to let the bill in
its present form go through.
The compromise agreement provides
for the opening up of the big oil fields
for leases to private operators, giving
the preference to those operators who
discovered oil on the lands and those
who have developed in good faith.
Each lessee is to pay to the govern
ment the equivalent of one-eighth of
his entire production, less the oil ac-
tually used in operating. This one
eighth payment does not only apply to
future production, but to a few hun
dred operators who now have wells in
operation on these tracts.
These operators, under the bill, will
have to pay the equivalent of one
eighth of their entire production since
they began operation. IL is against
these operators that the government,
through the Department OF Justice,
has been prosecuting ejectment suits.
The suits so far brought by the gov
ernment, it is asserted, have been won
by the oil operators.
This payment from the time of first
production is a concession in favor OF
the government, as those Senator'S who
wished to protct the interests of bona
fde operators had written the bill last
year to provide for payment on y since
the Supreme Court decision upholding
the validity of the Taft withdrawal
the famous Midwest Oil decision.
Naval Reserve Maintained
Aside from the farreaching conse-
quences of the measure as affecting
the shortage of oil for ships and loco
motives, and gasolene, the feature OF
the controversy which has attracted
the most attention is the hght 70
maintain a naval oil reserve. The field
known as Number Two, in California,
under the plans of Secretary of the
Navy Daniels has been laid aside to be
a reservoir for naval oil, not 10 be
touched for twenty-five years. Sena-
tors who have opposed this plan assert
that as there are now 300 wells on
parts of this tract, the mere fact that
no more wells could be bored would
not result in saving the oil for such
period of time, with the result that at
the end of the twenty-five years the
navy would have to pump out the little
oil remaining because the natural
pressure would have been cut into
deeply.
The oil experts of the navy are en-
tirely satisfied with the agreement
reached by the Senators, having taken
par, in writing it. One Of the points
on which the naval officers insisted
was a clause the intention of which is
10 bar from the benefits of the opening
Of these fields the men whose attempts
TO defy the withdrawal order have
caused so much litigation.
This protective clause reads as fol-
lows:
"That no claimant who has been
guilty of fraud in the location Of any
Gil claim or gas bearing lands shall be
entitled u any Of the benefits of this
section, nor shall his assignee be en-
titled thereto unless he affirmatively
shows that prior to the passage Of this
act he purchased such lands in good
faith, for q valuable consideration and
without actual knowledge of such
fraud"