The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-15
THE FIRST WARNING

HE FlhSl WAhNlNG
 Already the evidences begin to ac- cumulate that we are to import oil more and more, chiefly because our own supplies are gradually decreasing. The American people may not be as yet aware of the lurking danger which ex- ists in the oil situation, but they are sure to awaken to this fact after hav- ing been adequately informed and es- pecially after imports of oil cause such change in prices as materially to af- feet directly or indirectly every person in the United States. A. c. Bedford, who is chairman of the board of the Standard Oil company of New Jersey, which is the greatest corporation whose vocation is the manufacturing and marketing of oil products, has re- gently indirectly at least intimated to the American people that it is of vital importance that measures be taken to conserve our oil supplies and to re- tain control of our foreign market as far as possible. That is also the view of Walter Clark Teagle, who in a masterly manner since his election as president of the Standard Oil company of New Jersey, a little over year ago. has demonstrated his ability as an operator and manager of a great in- dustry. and also his profound under standing of what the new relation be- IWccn tHc HIGH WHO WOTh lOT WdSeS and the men who employ them must be if there be content and peace in the labor world.
 M. E.. Requa, national oil adminis- trator and master of the statistical side of oil production. counsels the adoption immediately of measures whereby our oil supply may be conserved. Of course it is recognized that there may be the discoveries of new and vast nj fio1dc nd ha inf nd citement which are now prevalent in all regions of the United States where discoveries of oil prospects were re- gently made, furnishes sufficient evil dence of the view taken by all who are familiar with this industry of the re- lation which it is to bear to American industries of all kinds and to our ;n- ternationsl trade.
 Dr F. G. Acheson. who has recently published a brief but very impressive article in which he sets forth the ne- cessity of conserving our oil industries and of utilizing as far as possible in exhaustible resources so that the re- sources which are natural but exhaus- tible can be conserved, takes the point of view that civilization itself the prosperity of the American people, our economic advance and the certainty that impairment of our oil industries would be sure to reach directly or in directly every citizen of the Unite1 States depend in great measure upon the conservation of our oil resources Dr. Acheson speaks as a citizen. The leaders of the oil industry speak with direct and immediate reference to the industry itself, but they all agree upon one point--that there must be conserv- ation of this great natural resource or else there may come economic or in- dustrial changes, the results of which no man now can accurately forecast. There fore it is believed that if the American people are well informsd so that they awaken to the importance of this situation all possible methods of conserving this resource will be adopted by individual initiative and also by legislation and the government itself