Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1919-08-22
"The Responsibility of Initiative in
the Solution of the Natural Gas
Problem Rests with the Public"

No departure from established custom can be
proposed without provoking discussion and the re-
Gently inaugurated agitation for the conservation OF
natural gas is exception to the general rule How
ever there seems to be mscOnceptlOn as TO the
origin and intent of this conservation movement but
this must arise either from lack of information on
the subject or failure to realize that warning was
given many years ago to the result OF WaSetul eX
travagance in the use of this precious fuel Certain
it is that producer and gave little heed to
such warnings because both seemed to believe that
natural gas was nexhaustibe but in the light OF bet
ter knowledge the realizes the mmlnence OF total
destruction of its business and the other the deprVa
ton of the most ideal domestic fuel.
Eminent biologists and other able authority on the
subject following recent exhaustive surveys OF the
Appalachian Gas Fields have renewed their oft re-
peaed warnings of the rapid depletion of these natural
gas pools from which Ohio, Pennsylvania and West
Virginia draw their supplies, but it was in Novem-
ber 1899 that Professor Edward Orton State Geolo-
gist of Ohio for many years, said:
'The price of (naturaD gas ought to be Increased
in every community that is using it. There is no
good reason why it should be sold at any less price
than the fuel which it displaces in other words why
the better article should be sold for less than the in
ferOr. In counting the cost of the displaced fuel ac-
count should always be taken of the various Items H.
voved such its storage and preparation the cost OF
lighting fires and the expense OF removing ashes ana
cnders, of which enter into the of gaseous
fuel 1t may be urged that increased price for gas
panes 1t be denied that there is possibility
of such result, but matter of fact there are very
few in the country in which companies have got
back their original investment any good chanc~
of getting it back. They generally obliged to con
tent themselves with generous dividends while the gas
is in full flow.
This early agitation for natural gas conservation on
the part of such an eminent authority fell on ears
unwilling to sten because of the mistaken notion that
there end to the natural gas supply But this
old order of things has undergone radical reversal
in the light of indisputable proof of the waning OF
discovered and undiscovered supply-the first evil
denced by lowering production and complete exhaus-
on of wells and the latter by the increasing failures
in attempting to develop new production.
Among the many recent recommendations for prac-
tca conservation of natural gas might be mentioned
bulletin issued by the Smithsonian Institution (Bul-
etin 1922 Part y under the title Natural Gas: It's
Production Service and Conservation. In the fore
word of this able pamphlet, c. G. Gilbert CURATOR Ol-
vision of Mineral Technology United States National
Museum, says
Natural gas is the least appreciated, consequently
the most abused, of the mineral resources IN popular
USE The issues involved of direct concern to some
ten millions of the inhabitants of the United States,
and their range of influence does not stop even here
for they form prominent feature in the nationwide
problem of fuel supply which may be solved etfectuay
only through co-ordnated attention to the component
parts This problem science and Technology working
together can take the initiative in simplifying by
pointing the way and devsing means for It's solution
but of their own initiative they poweress to go
further The responsibility of initiative in carrying
forward the actual process of solution rests with the
public and resting with the public is contingent as
first requisite upon public opinion genuinely alive to
NOTE:-The management of the gas company, de
it's patrons indicate by letter to the company their
must be done to conserve It, incidentally Tor their
lightenment in considering this problem have prep
booklet containing information data and recommended
from the most eminent authorities the subject,
we will be pleased to send to any patron who will fill
and mail us this coupon with his name and address,
The Newark Natur