The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-03-01

viii be no oil at all left in this broad
DOMAIN. This statement alone should
be sufficient to send the cold chils up
and down the spines of those investors
VINO are dependent upon oil for the
continuance of their industries. The
call of the government scientists is for
an awakening, for an up-and-at- 'em
policy in finding new sources of sup
ply, and of reaching economy through
more effective use of the oil already in
existence.
The United States has been the great
est producer of oil, and likewise the
| greatest consumer. Until recently it
| has contributed great quantities to
other nations. Now 1t has reached the
point, however. where it uses more
or two it has cut deeply into the re-
serve supplies that have been held in
tanks from Baltimore to Bakersfield
| Last year large quantities of oil We're
imported from Mexico, but there is a
slump in Mexican production because
of governmental interference In new
work, and an exhaustion of some of
those great wells that literally flowed
rivers of oil.
Next year there will be need of more
extensive .importations, and still more
the next and the next. The demand
for oil was never so nsistent, Yet the
American situation is not to be COM
pared with that Of Europe, where there
IS an absolute oil famine, and where
fabulous prices are offered for It.
| Gasoline in France, for instance, is
! controlled by the government, and the
| price is not allowed to rise in proper
tion to demand Yet gasoline sells for
dollar gallon in France
So the question arises as to where
the supply of oil and particularly gaso-
line, is to come from. viii automobile
owners be able to operate year after
next? The answer is, obviously, that
more oil must be found, or the age of
| oil will enter into decline At present
there is an eager and enthusiastic
| hunt for the discovery of new sources
| of supply. The biologists hold that the
| United States is pretty well prospected,
yet thousands of men are searching for
new EldOrados of oil. There is always
the lure that any man who sinks a
well may strike the greatest field of
! them all.
While the United States is intensively
engaged in unearthing whatever oil
/ may lie within its borders. other ma
| tons, like. England and France. who
| are much harder pressed, and who real
ize fully the prizes for which they are
playing, are organizing world wide
searches for the magic fluid. The other
! day Great Britain got a concession from
| Persia, giving the exclusive oil rights
| for half that nation. with highly de-
| Ntlpptu eCuHlIicTtIdl instinct, Britain is
mailing down all the oil privileges sh o
can. America, prone to stand aloof
| while others enlarge their spheres of
| influence in this oil crisis. may suffer
| in consequence
! But there is yet a whole wide world
| to be prospected for oil. Russia has
| been barely touched, but great well
have gushed forth, Africa ard South
| America are stupendous areas that may
! be made TO flow rivers of oil Mexico
holds great promise, and Ocaana in
! Nites MANY of tho barren places of
the earth, fit for nothing else, may be
made to yield the heavy liquid which
! man, with a match may set to doing
| the work Of ten thousands Titans.
| To-day there are scores of expeditions
| leaving the United States, other scores
| departing from London, from Amster-
! dam, from Marseilles, each headed bv
an engineer Versed in the mysteries of
| oil, and these will course the world
! from pole to pole in search of this
LIQUID which Is richer to man than fine
! gold