Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-08-12

Copyright. 1917. by Frank G. CarpenterJ
E7HE demands of the war have
brought Oklahoma into the
limelight- l might better say
into the gashght. for the
state is a mighty gasoline torch, the
flame of which is as important to US as
the pillar of fire was to the Israelites-
1t will increase in Importance as the
war goes on. Upon it will largely de-
pend the movement of the thou
sands of airplanes which we shall
be sending to Europe, of the motor
trucks in the field. of many of our yes
sells at sea. and even of the military
tanks. the warlike leviathans of the
land which will soon be travelling over
the trenches. the advance guards of our
army when charging the Germans.
Today Oklahoma leads the United
States m its output of petroleum and
natural gas. Last year the state pro-
duced more than four times as much oil
as Texas. and sixteen million barrels
more than California. 1t produced more
than one-third of all our petroleum.
and today more than a thousand new
wells are drilling and the present pro-
duction is more than a quarter of a
million barrels of crude oil per day.
with monetary value of 100000.
vast part of this product goes through
the pipe lines. which / have described
In a former letter. to Port Arthur,
Beaumont and Baton Rouge, but mil
lions of barrels refined on tie
ground The state has forty-one oil
refineries. and ten of these are now
using ten thousand barrels of crude oil
every twenty-four hours. They are all
running at their full capacity and they
viii be more than busy until the close
OF the war.
An enormous increase is going on in
the production of natural gas and in
the squeezing of gasoline out of the
gas for Industrial consumption. In the
past year the output of such gasoline
for this state has almost doubled Dur
Ing 1916 it was considerably more than
100000 gallons per week, and il is
possible that il may amount to 1oO.-
100000 gallons this year. During the
past twelve months the output of ma
tural gas has been more than 5000
Ooo.oO0 cubic feet daily. only about
one-tenth of which has been used
There is one field in the northern part
of Oklahoma which now Yields about
600.000.000 cubic feet of gas every day.
be the greatest natural gas producing
area of the world. There also
large quantities of gas in Kansas
Missouri. Louisiana and Texas. and
these fields may be developed to in
crease the gasoline supply. Just now
the various states are adopting con-
servation methods in order to prevent
the surplus of gas going to waste. II
is estimated that Oklahoma is now
saving something like 2.o0o0oo.oO
cubic feet every day.
Much of the gas lies in the rocks
above the beds of petroleum. and in
the past il was allowed to flow out and
go to waste in order to get the valu
able oil contents below. Today they
have discovered methods by which they
can pump in mud-laden fluid which
coats the oil well and seals in the gas.
SO that the oil can be taken out and
the gas preserved until needed. In
such cases the gas sand lies above the
oil sand. with rock breaks between.
The center of the oil industry OF
Oklahoma is the city of Tulsa. in the
northeastern part of the state and
about 100 miles from the capital, Okla
homa City. Tulsa has doubled in pop
ulation within the past two years, and
ii is now about fifty times as big as it
was in 1900. 1t is modern city of
more than so, 900 people with n-story
office buildings. large hotels. fine resi-
dences and parks and boulevards Its
building permits are now running from
half million to a million dollars per
month. and it claims to have on the
average 100 permits for new homes
every thirty days. building program
is now under way which will include
expenditures amounting to $4,000. 900.
and there is another which will com
prise n sixteen-story office building to
cost upward of $4.000.00o. The town
is one of many rich men. all of whom
have made fortunes in oil. One COM
pany recently sold its holdings for
$35,000.009. and two man who were
country merchants only few years
ago have realized $4,000. 900 cash for a
nnrtiOn of their nil
Among the well-to-do are Indians and
negroes. Much of the lands from which
the oil and gas are being taken be-
longs to Indian citizens, who have given
leases to various companies. In the past
three years these red men. chiefly Chero-
KEGS. Creeks and Osages. have received
more than five and half million dollars