New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-29
Fuel Conservation
In Improved Motor
Urged to Save Gas
Most Sensible Remedy in the
Face of Threatened Oil
Shortage Is Economy i'm
Autos, Says ''The Lamp

In discussing the possible gasoline
shortage of the future and remedies
that may be adopted to check waste
now. The Lamp. the magazine of the
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey
says that the sensible remedy is so
easy of adoption that it should not be
difficult to awaken public sentiment to
the need of reform
The magazine says that the oil in
dustry and the car manufacturers will
do their part and il suggests that the
automobile user demand an economical
motor. at is the public that will suf-
fer If the shortage becomes acute, and
it is the public that can provide the
remedy the article concludes. The
magazine says in part:
at must be obvious to everyone that
without any material increase in the
production of crude petroleum, while
the number of automotive vehicles ard
STATIONARY internal combustion motors
is increasing by leaps and bounds, it
cannot be long before there must be a
radical change either in the source of
our motor fuel or in the manner of its
consumption.
"ln 1919, production Of crude Pc
troleum IN the United States was ST.
$4,000 barrels and consumption 375.-
559, 900 barrels. leaving tenuous mar
gin of 100000 barrels over current
requirements. In the last five months
OF 1919 there occurred a radical dis
turbance IN t>e relationship of produc-
eion to consumption. In this period
consumption ran at the rate of 436 ,349,-
265 barrels per annun, while produc-
ton Jagged far behind or at the rate
of 402,622, OPS barrels per annum, indi-
eating an excess of consumption over
production for twelve months at that
rate of almost 100000 barrels.
at is we'll enough to talk about the
development of a possible substitute
for gasoline in the operation Of our
motors, but it is folly to rush head
long toward partial exhaustion of our
supplies, trusting to luck that we shall
have workable substitute when there
is no longer gasoline enough to 90
around. Efforts should be devoted, on
the one hand, 70 endeavors to discover
new fuel and additional sources of
production of petroleum, and, on the
other, to the equally imperative prob
lem of getting the maximum use out
of the supplies that we have
with the most optimistic feelings
toward domestic production and i'm
ports from Mexico, it is still evident
that 1t is only q question of time I'M
til there will not be enough gaso-
COM
nonsense methods Of conservation.
"The sensible remedy for the threat
ened shortage is so easy of adoption
that it should not be difficult to awaken
public sentiment to the need for re-
form.
"When motor vehicles first came into
common use we had such an apparent
~ ineXhaustible supply of crude petro-
ieum thaHthe price of gasoline was of
little moment to either the designers
or purchasers Of cars. The mileage
per gallon was the least important CON
sideration entering into the question
OF values. Heavy engines, heavy cars,
wasteful carburetion and compression
were the rule, and if a man did not
possess q motor that could give
good account of itself against every
car that tried to pass it the owner felt
aggrieved. With the refinement and
broadening Of the market manufacture
ers followed different courses, but
very few Of them have emphasized the
necessity for getting the maximum
mileage from each gallon of fuel.
"Of oul 100000 cars, more or less,
running in the United States to-day,
there is pitifully small number get
ting the gasoline mileage that should
be their portion. 1t is the rule, not the
exception, to find cars that are over
powered and overweight. In the be-
ginning there was some occasion for
this, not only because Of the plentiful
supply of gasoline, but because our
highways were for the most part I'M
even and poorly graded. To-day we
have an insufficient supply of fuel. but
marvellous network Of good roads
which reaches nearly every locality
where travel is considerable.
High Speed Unnecessary
"The United States is the only coun-
try in the whole world that insists on
high powered, heavy motor cara. 1t is
time that we stopped it. The man who
gets from six to eight miles from a
gallon of gasoline in order to have
reserve power for occasional use that
will enable him to push his car along
the road at from fifty to seventy-hve
miles an hour is an offender against
the public good. 1t is illegal to use
such speed anywhere outside Of a pr-
vate race track. For all practical pur-
poses an automobile that makes TWEEN
ty-five to thirty miles an hour would
serve every need. Such a car could be
made to average better than twenty
five miles and probably closer to thirty
miles on every gallon Of gasoline.
entirely aside from the appalling
death list from automobile speeding,
for which this country Is notorious, It
is wrong to waste fuel and tires In that
manner.
"The problem Of the future supply
of gasoline, as we see It, is primarily