The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-03-27
PRICE Of GASOLINE
HAS AGAIN DROPPED
Merry War on Gas" Brings
Joy to Local Autoists;
Now 13 Cents.

Ho hum! Gas" has dropped again.
It's 13 cents now.
The latest announcement In the
merry war, which is being waged be-
tween the Gulf Refining company of
Louisiana and the Standard Oil COM
pany Of Louisiana, made Thursday
morning, was that another local drop
had taken effect, making the retail
selling price of benzine buggy liquid
1S cents per gallon at local filling sta
tions and IL cents from Standard wag-
ons and IL cents from Gulf wagons.
The drop is a two-cent cut under
the price which went into effect
Wednesday morning, when gas stood
at 10 cents per gallon. The drop has
been on an average of two cents per
day now for the past three days and
cuts have been made by both local
branches every two or three days for
the past two weeks. sEf
How low the retail price will be
permitted to drop, is only a matter of
conjecture and profits, this being a
matter resting entirely upon the fight
ing spirit and the pocketbook of the
respective companies Local managers
OF the two companies would not ven-
ture a statement Thursday morning as
to when the price slashing would stop
or how far 1t would be carried. Local
autoists are hoping that 1t will not
be long before they are being paid to
burn the very necessary gas.
Changes Are Rapid.
Changes are coming so rapidly now
adays that filling stations, other than
the main Gulf and Standard stations,
are leaving blank space Upon their
windows during the early morning
hours and then filling in when the
days announcement is made. AS the
result of constant changing, the price
of chalk is reported to be on the ad-
vance.
Since the first slashng of prices be-
gan little more than two weeks ago,
the selling price of gasoline has dropped
from 23 cents per gallon to virtually
half that price. And the end is not
yet.
The warfare is said to be directly
traceable to the efforts of the Standard
agency to develop its tank wagon SER
vice to local and county filling stations,
When the filling station price was 23
oerts the Standard people dropped the
Gulf interests dropped the filling station
price to 81 cents. The Standard in
terests then met the Gulf filling sta
tion price and at the same time low
cred ITS wagon price to 10 cents, Thus
it has been going on for two weeks,
each company refusing to be undersold,
the Standard agency first lowering the
wagon price and the Gulf representa- :
tiVes lowering the price at the filling
stations.
Fight Is Spreading.
The fight, while at first confined ex-
clusively to Memphis and Shelby coun-
ty, eventually began to spread over the
state and now is being waged in Knox
vile, where the price has been cut from
four to nine cents per gallon. Prices
there have dropped from a maximum
of 27 cents per gallon to IS cents.
In Chattanooga, the price has dropped
from "a cents per gallon to 16 cents,
the latter price being quoted by the
Gulf Refining company, of louisiana.
1t was stated in Chattanooga that the
Gulf stations would continue to sell
gasoline two cents under the Standard,
regardless of how low the price dropped.
The former quotation of go cents in
New Orleans has dropped to 10 cents
per gallon at Gulf stations but 1t was
reported Thursday morning that the
Texas Oil company, the Liberty Oil
company and other minor corporations
are maintaining a price of % cents.