The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-04-30
NEWS or IMPORTANCE

serve W dldIn every OWuCI Vi dN
automobile and set him thinking what
| is to take the place Of gasoline when
that fuel becomes so high that nobody
but milliOnaires can afford to use it.
According to the official statement
Of the survey, the production of crude
oil from which gasoline is made has
passed its peak and is on descending
scale.
/ Natures supply of oil in the United
States, and she long ago stopped max
| ing it, has been more than forty per
cent exhausted. More and more we
shall have to import crude oil with
increasing prices with the necessity OF
enforced economy in its use.
Pennsylvania oil is today selling for
500 a barrel. the highest price in
sixty years.
Oil in Texas and Oklahoma has re
Gently risen fifty per cent and is still
going higher.
In 1917 the United States produced
sixty-six per cent of all the oil in the
world.
| In that same year it used sixty-three
per cent of the worlds supply, and ex-
ported thirteen per cent.
Since then the first figure-the pro-
duction figure-has fallen and the
consumption figure has risen, and
along with it has gone the price, until
gasoline is now selling for thirty cents
a gallon, and going higher every day.
For the automobile owner this is =
very serious situation.
The man who has been using gaso-
line for his stationary engine can put
in steam plant and use coal.
But for the auto motor an~entirely
new fuel must be invented or discover
ed.
In 1920 this country will have about
$500 900 motor cars. This is six
seventh of all the motor driven vehic-
les in the world
That means that every increase in |
the price of gasoline affects directly or
Indirectly every man, woman and child
in the country, no matter whether the
family has or has not an automobile.
When gasoline goes UP it affects
taxicab rates, the cost of hauling sup
plies, the cost of delivering coal, and
fa thousand and one other services
rendered by the gas engine.
Somebody-and that somebody
should be the Goyernment-should
make it an immediate duty to devise
/ a substitute for gasoline.
Henry Ford is said to be spending
thousands Of dollars in the effort toll
produce new fuel But this POLLEN
is not an individual problem. 1t is a
national problem and should be a
Government function.
The average consumption OF gaso-
line per motor is about 500 gallons a
year That means total annual use
in this country for automobiles of
4, $50. OO0,O gallons.
An increase of one cent in the price |
mean $42, $780, 900. That is more than
hundred thousand dollars day adj
ditional expense every time gasoline
goes up a penny.
Isn't that enough to interest the
Government?
More than that. the Goversment
to,,I1 ~ 49, /,,,<.e,+ So, ~. <s,,,, eatzo
for every decrease in the supply OF
crude. oil and subsequent increase in
price means either increasing cost of
feeding the fires under the boilers of
every up to date warship or going
back to the obsolete use of coal.
The problem of finding a, substitute
for gasoline is not half as hard as
some we solved during the war.
We wanted non-combustible gas for
balloons. There was only one gas
lighter than air that would not ex-
plode and that was helium made from
radium.
But we solved the problem of max
ing helfum, and when the armistice
was declared we were ready to make
helium gas in any quantity needed at
nominal price.
One mans brains did that. Some
mans brains can do as much for the
gasoline problem.
Alcohol, no longer legal as a bever-
ago is an ideal f,iel high IN mower
units, markedly free from carbon.
1t exists in nearly everything we
grow, in corn stalks. in potatoes, in
much that is now practically useless
as refuse.
II alcohol is not the best substitute,
then whatever is best should be dis.
covered and be made available.
And when the investigation is com.
49, n - r.. n a X