The Seward gateway and the Alaska evening post., 1917-09-27

tomobie owners of the country will
 stop unnecessary and extravagant.
 pleasure riding during the period of
 the war, they will save enougH gas
 oline to take care of all the war needs of the Urjted States.
 If the automobile owners and deal CTS in gasoline handle this most per
 feet of all fuels in a careful and eco
 homie manner, they can save enough more gasoline to perhaps take care of. of the war needs of the allies,
 The above statements were made byI
 Ivan II. Manning, director of the Bu-. reau of Mines, Department of he In- teror after a thorough Investigation of the present gasoline situation.
 "A patriotic, thoughtful and unsel-. fish response to these suggestions" said Mr. Manning, would at once. solve one of the perpIexing problems
 now before the war-making authori-
 ties. In order that the war may be. carried on successfully, the army and
 navy will have to have immediately
 on hand enough gasoline for the aero ! planes, trucks, automobiles, tractors and other machines. There must be. no dilly-dallying about this supply of ! gasoline and there won't be. It is es- timated that the army and navy will need for the year, $50 million gallons, and there are two ways of obtaining ! it. In the first place, the joy rider. whose pleasure is obtaining by cover ! ing many miles at high speed can vol-. untariy give this up; the man whoI takes his family on Sunday for 5O-. mile ride or more can cut this in half; every man who drives a machine daily can ask himself if part of his riding can not be obviated. To sum up, ev- cry automobile owner and driver can be taught to ask himself each morn 1 ing whether or not his proposed trip is absolutely necessary, and act ac- cordingly, then the problem is solved, . and with only slight voluntary sacri- ] fees. On the other hand, if the peo- pie continue to be thoughtless and un- willing to do their patriotic bit in this respect, it may be necessary for the United States to take drastic action which will stop excessive pleasure uscI of all automobiles. This is not yet contemplated, so l understand, but you can see that it is the only alternative for the refusal of the automobile own ! CTS to cooperate and make the nee l essary voluntary sacrifices.
 Tt is generally estimated and con-
 ceded that one-halt of the gasoline
 used in the United States (one bil-I ] lion two hundred and fifty million gauons) is used in pleasure riding. In
 my opinion, a judicious use of the au-
 tomobile for this purpose will cut this amount of gasoline in half, which
 would mean the saving of more than
 a million gallons each day in the year.
 By a real economic use of gaso- Line, we can save not only enough to
 supply the United States with suHi-
 2ient for its war needs; but also
 enough for the needs of the allies. Here are a few suggestions as to how the latter savings may be made:
 Don't allow your gasoline engine to
 run idle--if every automobile in the United States saved a pint a week, l it would amount to 44O,OOO gallons per
 week, or enough to run 10000 aero ! planes one day.
 "GasoHne is generally used in gar ages for cleaning, when kerosene is really better. It is estimated that 55,- 500 gallons of gasoline are wasted per day that could readily be saved.
 'Leaky carburetors cause losses. Often one finds his tank nearly empty ! in the morning on this account. Form
 the habit of shutting off the gasoline
 at the tank. It is difficult to estimate