New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-07-04
Bedford Optimistic
Over Outlook for
Production of Oil
Standard Oil Official in
Favor of Preparing for
the Future, However; Leg
islative Changes Asked

While A. &. Bedford, chairman of
the Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey, is optimistic over American oil
production for the future, he believes
that preparations should be made at
once for safeguarding the supply for
Americans in case it should be neces-
sary to make restrictions. He explains
his views in an article in the July
number of The Nations Business"
from which the following extract is
taken:
1T is none too soon to adopt a COM
prehensive program for the safeguard
ing of our oil requirements ten years
hence. If laws on our statute books
handicap American companies while
tavorlng foreigners we should change
the laws, always having in mind
proper protection Of the public in
terest. All the American oil industry
wants is a square deal: By that
mean the same freedom of action to
obtain production, no matter where it
is located in the world, as the nationals
of other countries have to develop or
obtain production here in the United
States. We do not ask for restrictive
legislation on the part of our govern
ment, but rather that their entire
efforts should be directed along the
lines that petroleum is an essential
product and that the nationals of all
countries should have full freedom and
opportunity TO develop it no matter in
what particular country it happens to
be found.
The present is not the first time
the oil Industry of this country has
been faced with such q situation. Time
and again the outlook for crude oil has
been dubious and critical, only to be
followed by discoveries Of new sources
Of supply, such as the West Virginia,
Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and
California fields and, later on, vast
quantities Of oil in Mexico.
"a man who was selling oil stock
was asked if there were any indica-
lions Of oil where his company was
drilling. Indications!' he said. why,
l should say So We have 5000 acres
leased, have a standard rig up, have
500 feet of casing on the ground and
more ordered, have our company or
ganized and incorporated and 1000, 600
shares of stock printed, have opened
Offices in three cities, have 200 people
selling stock, are only forty miles from
a pipe line, and there was no oil found
in those other wells about there, so it
must be in our well. Oh: we have
Il am naturally an optimist; in fact,
if one is not an optimist he should
keep out Of the oil business and pos
sibly the export business, so l person.
ally do not feel there is going to be a
ia mine in gasoline and other petroleum
products in this country | quite
agree, however, with the recent state
ment of the acting director of the
Bureau of Mines Of the Department Of
~ ~ 10
the gasoline situation appears to be in
an acute stage in California, the same
situation does not apply to the rest Of
the country, and there is no need for
alarm for some time to come.
There may be a possible shortage
at some points before the summer auto
mobile touring season is over, which
is the time of the peak load Of gaso-
line consumption. The Tact IS that
there is a shortage of crude just now,
which means that the least essential
uses of oil must be curtailed. Produc-
ton in the United States has for long
time been close to what must continue
to be the peak, unless some new field
OF importance is discovered.
at is obvious that the United States
could not hope to continue for very
long TO be self sufficient in the matter
of petroleum supplies. He who runs
may read the inevitable result of the
tremendous increase in the output OF
motor cars. trucks and tractors, the
growing tendency to displace coal with
oil under boilers and the manifold new
uses found for petroleum derivatives
on the one hand and fixed production
of crude on the other hand.
"rrom 1909 to 1913 there was an in
crease Of 100 per cent in the number
of cars and trucks or the highways,
while in the same period the output
of gasoline increased $50 per cent and
the amount of crude oil produced
only 95 per cent. AS near as any one
can estimate, we had 100000 motor
vehicles in this country at the end of
last wear. and the trade says there Will
be between 100000 and 10000 coo at
the end of 1920. The oil companies are
providing for increased oil importation
in the building OF large feet of
tankers, and are bending every effort
to increase their holdings Of oil fields
in other lands outside of the United
States. But they cannot do this alone
1t is a matter in which great nations,
as we'll as our own, are interested. and
behind the oil companies must stand
the people of the United States and
the government"