Omaha daily bee., 1917-06-18
The OIL of War
By Frederic J. HdskiR

Washington, June l5-If the war lasts for
several years, unless some great new source OF
petroleum is found, the pleasure and the pleas
ure boat may have to be deprived of their share
OF the worlds dwindling gasoline supply.
This is the substance and meaning OF several
mines to subcommittee Of the Council OF Ma
tonal Defense, which has charge OF the petroleum
problem This committee is composed of leading
oil producers, with Mr.. Bedford of the Standard
Oil as its chairman. Needless to say, this COM
mittee will not be at all hasty in recommending
the curtailment OF any use OF any petroleum prod
uct 1t is known that it has not looked with favor
upon any line of argument pointing toward the
limiting by law the use OF gasoline.
Petroleum is one Of the chiefest sinews OF war.
We no more beat Germany or defend Amer
ica without an adequate petroleum supply than
we can do it without enough men. Not wheel
turns without petroleum oil to ubricate it.
Gasoline moves armies and their supplies lifts
aeroplanes to vantage heights, carries back the
wounded. Modern navies burn petroleum. And
right now the allied navies are counting their
barrels OF oil like misers. All Of our big vessels
are oil burners and our Navy department is
counting upon keeping up its oil supply by dis
tilling petroleum out of shales-a process which
has not been perfected as yet in this country.
Director Van H. Manning OF the bureau of
mines has prepared graphic chart w .ch shows
how we are using this precious fluid more clearly
than any words. He has plotted three curves
one OF which shows tfe rate at which we are
producing petroleum, smother one the rate at
which production of gasoline has increased, and
the third the rise of the automobile. If these
three lines were nearly parallel we would know
that we could go on using gasoline at the present
rate for an indefinite length of time. But these
lines diverge sharply. 1t would be impossible for
them to diverge much farther. They show that
the production of automobiles has already in
creased 200 per cent above the increase Of gaso-
t,t,. =.
the apparently unsolvable puzzle" of our gasoline
supply.
Should things go on as they are going, the
answer to the puzzle is easy. 1t would be as easy
as the puzzle presented by a tank which is leak
an hour The tank would soon be empty And
our gasoline supply will soon be exhausted un-
less something is done either to supplement the
supply or to restrict its use.
There are several possibilities OF supplement-
ing the supply which may make unnecessary for
long time any restriction in the use of gasoline
or oil The trouble is that none of these is more
than possibility. The thing to keep in mind
now is that gasoline is national need, and that
it is unpariotic to waste it.
Scientists are working to supplement our gaso-
line supply iii several ways all of which will prob
ably be successful to some extent in the course
of time; but none of which can be counted upon
to win the war. More efficient methods of get
ting oil from the sands are being perfected Great
quantities of oil will undoubtedly be distilled from
shales in the near future. The new cracking proc
ess perfected by the bureau of mines furnished
~ per cent OF the gasoline production last year,
has enormous possibilities, and is being installed
IN most OF our large oil works. The treatment
OF natural gas by compression, refrigeration and
absorption has produced good grade of gasoline.
Products OF the distillaton of coal are now being
used as substitutes for gasoline in Europe.
The mathematics of the gasoline and petrol
cum situation in this country as summarized by
Director Manning, are as follows: Our total pro-
ducton OF gasoline last year was ffty-four million
barrels. The increase in the number of auto
mobiles since 1910 used Just about half of this
amount. Between S. and 90 per cent is exported
and the rest is used in boats tractors stationary
engines, and for uses of minor importance. All
OF these uses show some tendency to increase
The only thing that is hard to increase is the
gasoline supply.
Our marketed production of petroleum in 1916
was 295 million barrels. Our storage stock in
January OF that year was estimated at l70 million
barrels. By the end of the year this had dwindled
to $50 million barrels. In other words, we had to
draw twenty million barrels of oil from storage in
order to make up our failing production.
During 1915 the normal consumption of crude
petroleum was II per cent greater than in 1914
and last year it was l3 per cent greater than in
l9lS. II 1t goes on increasing at the same rate
our normal peace consumption OF petroleum for
1917 will be about forty million barrels greater
than that Of 1916 This takes no account of the
increased demand caused by war. And this is
what Director Manning says about the supply
The production OF crude petroleum in this
country during last year is thought to have
reached high water mark and it is very likely
that the production for 1917 will be smaller than
it was last year. IL The difference between
the estimated production and consumption during
this year will amount to sixty million
barrels which must be drawn out of
storage. With only about $50 million barrels of
crude petroleum in storage at the first of the year
and with it becoming necessary to draw
from that reserve probably sixty million barrels
it becomes apparent that some radical
step must be taken to meet the situation"
Don't waste it. That's all you can do