The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-22

prices. The people seem to have money in plenty. 1t is reported here
 that some of those who have been
 buying heavily in the department
 stores which announced a reduction
 of 20 per cent in prices have been in
 some cases selling Liberty Bonds in
 order to get the money and in many
 cases have been drawing part of
 their deposits in the savings banks.
 A movement of this kind if it is na-
 tion-wide, will speedily reduce the
 stock of commodities carried by de-
 partment stores and other shops, but
 it is expected that the shelves can be
 replenished at lower cost than was
 heretofore charged, and in addition the department store managers will
 be in possession of cash in abundance
 in order to make bargains upon the
 spot cash basis.
 A GREAT CUSTER
 Reports reached New York today which told of the bursting forth from the bowels of the earth In Mexico of
 a so-ealled oil gusher which is deliv ering oil at the rate of 1S5,000 barrels
 a day. This new we'll. according to the reports, is upon the property of the Texas Company. But no one can tell whether it will continue to spout as many as 130,000 barrels of petro- leum day for many days or whether after a little while it's yield will de- | crease until at last it will be ex- hausted.
 It all depends first, upon the amount of oil which is drawn from the well, for it is not to be expected that any petroleum pool contains oil enough to go on spouting day after | day at the rate of 130,000 barrels if the company captures the oil as fast ! as it is delivered from the well. Some | day the supply will be exhausted Then again the magnitude of the petroleum pool depends upon the contour of the | land through which the well is driven.
 If the well is above the water line. l then it's production will be likely to | continue perhaps for a long time, but gradually and yet surely the water line will advance until at last it reaches the
 pool and when that is done the well | ceases to yield anything but water. Experience has shown this to be the | fact in many instances. Therefore,
 the owners of the great wells do not | try to predict the life of the wells. saying that 1t is all a mystery of the ! future.
 1 The engineers who have been em- | ployed in laying of pipe lines, some of whom constructed that remarkable system of pipe lines which runs from | Oklahoma to Chicago and were laid I pecially the Mississippi, found them-
 s>ives confronted with formidable problem when they were told that it
 was essential to convey the oil pro- | duced from the Mexican coast to the l tankers which lay at anchor some two miles off. The approach to the shore is very shallow. The tankers are 1 compelled to anchor as far out as two
 miles in order to get deep water i iTherefora if was found essential to 1 construct pipe lines underneath the Ted of the sea stretching from the main land some two miles away, to tho tankers. It was not an easy un- dertaking for the engineers, but they | mastered the problem so that now | some part of the Mexican oil is con veyei by pipes that lie underneath ! the bottom Of the sea. two miles tc | the tankers which having received the | oil sail away for the refineries, some l in Texas. some farther north and some
 to Charleston, s. c.