New Britain herald., 1920-03-27
FUTURE OIL SUPPLY
 TROUBLES INDUSTRY
Question Causes Scientists and
 Manufacturers to EVinCe Concern

Washington, D. C., March 27.-
 Why are we worried about oil?
 Our future oil supply is a question
 which is troubling captains of indus
 try and scientists, yet the reasons for
 this concern are not generally under
 stood by the average citizen. George
 Otis Smith, director of the U. S. Geo.
 logical Survey, explains, in a com
 munication to the National Geograph-
 ic society:
 Tn the course of the centuries the
 aW-materia1 issue changes. In the
 long-bow epoch of Eng'ands military
 strength the conservationjst feared a
 depletion of the yew wood which
 might give the Teuton, backed up by
 his larger forests, an obvious advan-
 tage in light ordnance. I4ater, when
 Great Britaii77s naval power de,pend-
 cd upon her wooden sInpS of war the
 anxious naval chief foresaw 3 possi-
 b4e shortage of the oak which made
 the walls that stood between EngS
 lanG and her enemies.
 To-day those who: plan for the fu-
 ture prosperity of their natioa .tai-z
 the extent to which other law Hla-
 terials are essential to the general
 we'll being, and for somo of these we
 can see no adequate substitutes.
 "F'oremost among these most use ful and least abundant, if not, indeed,
 irreplaceable commodities stands mineral oil. or petroleum, and not only the conservative Briton, but the most optimistic American, may welt ask himself: Where will my children and childrer's children get the oil that they may need ill ever-lncreas- amounts?
 But while the United States has half (h1 per cent) of the oil that the world has used for nearly 60 years, we have already reached the point where we arc consuming moro oil than we pro- duce. Is this position of the world S greatest user of petroleum as safe as it is spectacular?
 We arc the worlds greatest con- sumers of petroleum; but. impressive l d.: arc tho 1918 figures of consump- tion-413,G7I,113 barrels-no m1nd 1 can easily grasp the idea of that quan- tity Truly it is a flood of oil; for, II spread over the 60 square miles or the District of Columbia, these 4la million barrel would cover the area to a depth Of nearly foot and Q hall "Besinning with four miles Of iron pipe laid down in Western Pennsyl- vania at the close of the Civil war, this system now embraces a huge net work of buried pipes from four to eight inches in diameter, trunk lines and laterals aggregating nearly oo,- 900 miles, When most of us were in school, 1 'i!' meant kerosene, and gasoline or | benzine was something to be bought ] in d. bottle at the drug store or the l paint shop.
 "Todav oil has become the premier 1 motive power, not only on lano anu 1 sea but even in the heavens above ! and the depths below-truly the pest 1 servant of Mars and Mercury. | Marshal F'och is quoted as saving ! that a crop of gasoline was worth III war a drop of blood
 "-rhc number and variety or uses 1 Of petroleum and it's products are 1 continually increasing, but even more 1 striking is our increased dependence l upor a few of the products ot the OH refinery. notably gasoline, kerosene l the many types of lubricatins olls' ] and fuel oil.
 ] 'There are said to be 300 or more 1 products of petroleum, each with us 1 own use Some of these products ] serve merely our convenience, such as 1 inc artificial vanilla havoring or the | cover of parafflnc on the jar of jelly 1 or roarnlalade; others were found 1 luring the war period to be absolute
 Iy essential to industry on large l scale-for example, the heavy oil l used in temperins steel plates. . Tt is when we think of the marvel i ous growth of the automobile indus l trv that we realize future demand l for fabrication that staggers even the 1 prophetic :statistlcian. With more l than six million pleasure automobiles 1 operated in the United states alone l we have an annual consumption esti-