Norwich bulletin., 1920-01-17
THE OIL AGE AND IT'S NEEDS

thermal units in the oil, whereas if this | same fuel oil were used directly in a Diesel engine, 30 to 35 per cent of the power of the oil would be secured.
 Substitute the internal combustion en- zine for the steam boiler and we null
 tfply by three or three ana one half
 the supply of fuel oil in the United
 States. Instead of our fuel oil supply being, let us say 2eJ, ,g00, 900 barrels it would at once rise to 500 0,o0o, 900
 barrels or 70e,000, 900. I recognize that
 hope as applied to things as they are. but there is no reason why this should not be d very definite, policy as to things that are to be. We are in the
 petro1eum age, and how long. it will last depends upon our own foresight, invenfiveness and wisdom. Already we are importers of petro- leum. We are to be larger importers l yeak by year if we continue-and we l wili-to invent and build machines
 which will rely upon oil or it's deriva- lives as fuel. Our business methods
 have been, and doubtless will continue
 to be, developed along lines that make
 a continuing oil supply a necessity Some of that. oil must come from
 abroad, ass nearly. 40,O00, 900 barrels 7YC
 compete with the world. For while we
 are the discoverers of oil and of the methods of securing it, and refining it. i piping it and using it, our pioreering is but a service unto the world
 This situation calls for policy I-prompt, determined and looking many years ahead. For the American navy and the American merchant marine 1 and American trade abroad must de-
 pend to some extent upon our being able to secure, not merely for today, but for tomorrow as well, an equal op- i portunity with other nations to gain .l petroleum from the fields of the world I have given much thought to this problem of adding to our petroleum
 supply and it has seemed to me but fair that we should first make every effort to- increase the domestic supply
 through the methods that have been F findicated: (1) The saving of that which is now wasted, below ground and above ground; f2) The more in- ii tensiye use, through new machinery ! and devices of the supply which we
 have. (3) The development of oil fields
 on our withdrawn territory and in new
 areas such as tie Philippines.
 In addition, we must look abroad fol 7[ a supplemental supply and this may e be secured through American enter. 5 prise if. we do these things:
 CD Assure American capital that i r it goes into a foreign country and se- F cures the right to drill for oil on {
 legal And fair basis Gall of which mus that it will be protected against con q fscatien or discrimination. This shoulC . be a known published policy. As
 (25 eReQuire- every An1ercaTl corrOf ation producing oil in a foreign coun : itry to take out federal charter fo f such enterprise under which .whateve ftoil it produces should be subject to !:
 preferential right on the part of thi | government to take all of it's suppl.
 or a percentage thereof at any tim on payment of the market price.
 i (3) Sell no oil to a vessel carryin; o d charter from any foreign govern V ment either at an American port o I at any. American bunker when tha governinent does not sell oil at a non
 discriminatory price to our vessels a : it's bunkers or ports.
 ei The oil industry is more distinctivel, American than any other of the grea f basic industries. It has been&he crea d tion of no one class or group but Q ii many men of many kihds-tte hard | n oil' who spent his months upon tn s desert and in the mountains searchini . for seepages and tracing them to thei Q source; the rough and two-fisted drill ' CT, a man generally of unusual physica n strength, who handled the great tool : of his trade; the venturesome wild n eater" part prospector, part promo itH ter, part operator, the marine" of tn < industy, soldier and sailor, too; tn . geologist who through his study of tn
 anatomy of the earth crust could ma syi the ools and sands almost as if he saE ! them; the inventor; the chemist wit \ 1 still and furnace; the genius wh
 found that oil would run in a pipe < these and many more, in most of tn q sciences and in nearly all of th
 crafts, have created this American in '. dustry. If they are. permitted they wi B reveal the world supply of oil An | upon that supply the industries of oti v country will come to be increasingl dependent year by year.