The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-30
Topeka STATE JOURNAL 5
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKN. Director.
Washington, d. c.
Gas ABOuT GAS.

: GAS ABOUT GAS.
washington, D. c., Oct. 27.-There
is no subject upon which you can col
lect more misinfo-mation in a given
length of time than that of our falling
supply of petroleum. And 1t II a sub
iect that comes home to everyone VINO
rides in an automobile in the form OF
a high price for gas, and of frequent
alarms as to the complete failure OF
the supply.
eoua llv stirring tales of enormous sup
plies of oil untapped, or of the discov-
ery' Of substitutes which will soon
make lis as independent of petroleum
as petroleum made us Independent OF
whales for an oil supply. The humble
owner of a flivver does not know
whether to believe that he may De
robbed of his transportation any DAY
by the failure of his fuel supply, or
that the supply is inexhaustible, or
that he will have to change his car
, burotor presently and use a fuel made
out of alfalfa, shavings and waste pa
per. Likewise he is sometlmesl Tempt
ed to believe that he will have to go 10
war and fight for supply OF gas
with other nations, and at other times
he is encouraged to think that the
United states will be as Independent
in this respect for all time as the IT.
reconciIables would have 1t be IN po-
litical questions.
other vital question in America. mas
been converted into a frightful buga-
boo which is used to scare us ny an
sorts of interested and mlschieVous
persons, as boys use hollow pumpkin
and a. sheet on Halloween People
that want to invade Mexico and people
who oppose intervention, people that
want to stir up feeling against Eng
land, and people that want US TO love
her, people that want a nlgh price
for. gas and people that want low
one. all use this question as a means
to an end, and all of them can flnd
figures to support their several con-
This Is the Truth.
Yet the facts about the oil supply
are comparatively simple according 10
the bureau of mines.
The consumption of gasoline in TINS
country increases at an alarming rate.
That is the first important fact. II
looks as tho we would always use all
| the gas we can get. Barring some I'M
probable great find of oil in this coun-
try, we will always live in fear or a
shortage, and we will occasionally sur
fer from a temporary shortage at least
| We are dependent upon constant new
discoveries for keeping up our supply.
| From 20 to 80 per cent of the oil we
use in any year comes from new wells.
| We are, to some extent, like the tramp
who never knows where>the next meal
is coming from, but who nearly always
| finds it somewhere. Each year there
is a little oil boom or big one some
where in the United States, and that
oil boom saves the situation. If year
or two should pass without the open
| ing of new wells of $ubsta value,
there would be a shortage which would
probably continue until new finds were
made.
In other words, while>the end of our
known oil supply is just a little way
| ahead, our unknown oil supply keeps
coming to the rescue. But it is not a
thing to rely upon.
Then, too, our known oil supply Is
being stretched in ways that were not
dreamed ofNa few years ago. Wells in
old fields, such as that at Bradford
Pa, which were supposed to be about
ingenious methods. Water-flooding
and the forcing of a flow of oil by
means of compressed a1s<are the best
! of these methods. AS a result of what
they have shown, some experts believe
that we have not been recovering more
than 20 per cent of the oil from oul
wells, and they believe that our esti-
be increased at least so per cent and
perhaps 100 per cent.
Three Sources of Supply.
4 Our supply of motor fuel may be
supplemented chiefly in three ways
In the first place, motor fuel may be
obtained from coal by colIing it anC
also from natural gas. Neither OF
these sources offers solution-of the
problem, of course, because the Goa
. and gas supplies are inadequate. Blu
they will help. Especially important
is the growth of the tendency to coke
all coal before it is used as furnact
fuel.
In the second place, we have vas
, deposits of shales containing petro
leum which science has found way!
: of extracting. The supply of oil il
: the oil shales is vastly greater thar
that in the known fields of free oil
: These oil shales have repeatedly beef
held up as a complete solution of tn
= problem. As a matter of fact they ar
no immediate solution at all. The ex
2 traction of oil from the shales is hard
= ~ on a commercial basis yet, and tn
/ mere digging of the shales would TAX
I almost as many men as 1T takes t.
I dig our coal supply. 1t is reasonabl
e to hope that the oil shales will ulti
mately supply a large part of gu
/ needs for petroleum, and it is com
t forting to know that this great poten
i tial supply is at hand in our owl
e country; but it must be borne in min
i get at this treasure.
The use of alcohol as a motor fue'
l and even as a source of all powe
: has also been the subject of much mis-
q representation. Alcohol can be mad
n from most vegetable matter, and vege
II table matter reneWs itself indefinitely
= Therefore here isl theoretically an in
eXhahstible source of motor fuel. Blu
1 here again, the whole technique c
n producing the fuel remains to be dis
. covered. Alcohol is now worth thre
n time as much as gasoline. From tn
; leaves of forest trees enough alcohC
e could be made to run all the auto
= mobiles in the country but the cost {
: gathering the leaves is prohibitiv'
; Enough vegetable matter goes t
d waste on farms and in sawmills
make an~aicohol supply adequate fo
: our motor fuel needs, but here agai
= the cost of gathering this widel
. sea ttar.ad material and 1aking If int