Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-02-13


When the Standard on company re-
Gently put up the price Of gasoline
one cent . gallon the increase pro-
duced the customary reflex through
the American retail machinery. and
The customer was required to pay
two and three cents more for It.
The five million operators Of motor
cars in the United States had been
paying, in typical communities. Is
cents . gallon for gasoline Nov
they are paying a and % cents.
The public is accustomed to hav-
ing prices raised on commodities
80 that it hardly gave this incident
q thought It was, however, .
fash from the great drama Of oil
that is today playing itself out In
the world, q drama that has few
parallels in the historyiof commodi-
ties, and beside which the world
scramble for gold in the past gen
Grafton was . mere curtain raiser.
The price of gasoline went up
because the price Of crude oil. from
which it is refined. had advanced.
Gasoline is the cream OF crude oil,
the 10 or Is per cent that is skim
med of the top Of that product. It
is the most refined OF all fuels.
The propellant that hauls the arti-
cles of trade and industry, that
sends the fighting plane aloft, or
drives my lady's limousine when
she goes. calling. 1t is the mother
of the automobile industry with all
its dependents It is a child of yes
terday, today 80 firmly established
in the industrial household as to
seem indispensable.
There is crisis in gasoline that
has thoroughly alarmed those who
know the problem best, but which
seems to be little appreciated by the
multitude of its users throughout
the land. Crude oil has gone up
in price because of the increased
world demand for it. The navies
of the world have found that oil is
q fuel that is far more satisfactory
than the coal they have been burn
ing. 1t can be slowed as ballast,
and the great spaces occupied by
coal can be used for other purposes.
1t can be fed under the boilers by
the turning Of a faucet, and the
stokers may be brought from the
furnace rooms and given tasks less
like that of laboring in the inferno.
The fuel cargo Of oil that may be
carried by a ship can drive it on
a far longer journey than any cargo
of coal will take it.
So the navies of the world have
turned to oil. Likewise the cargo
and passenger ships Of recent build
have largely substituted oil tanks
for bunkers. The American Ship
ping board has shown a marked
Partially for oil burners. There
are many railroads that have sub
stituted oil for coal, and even sta
tionary engines burn it. In fact
it is on the road to a general dis
placement Of coal if the supply can
be found to keep pace with the de-
mand.
The use of oil has grown so
stupendous that it is difficult to be-
iieve that it was but 60 years ago
that a man named Drake, while
sinking we'll in Pennsylvania, in
search of brine, accidentally
brought in the first oil well. 1t is
difficult to realize that 40 years ago
the United States produced but a
hundred thousand barrels of oil a
day, and had great difficulty in mar
keting it, while today the yield is
10 times as great and there is a
ready market for twice that yield
were it available.
And now that the era of oil has
established itself there is alarm in
high circles lest the whole struc-
ture fall because Of lack of the
product. These scientists in the
department Of the interior who de-
vote themselves to a study of oil,
state that the United States, hav-
ing produced &c per cent of all the
oil that the world has SO far burn
ed, has reached its maximum of
production, is about ready to start
on the down grade, and that in 20