Norwich bulletin., 1920-01-17

Seven years ago presented to con gress a picture of the nations need fc< the further discovery and production of petroleum. and asked that relief be giv- en by the passage of a leasing law under which our public lands could be opened to development, writes Frank lin K Lane, secretary of the interior in the Independent. We then had several milton acres of probable oil land under withdrawal up, dlosed. sealed useless. That land is still closed, and to 1t has been added until now we have over six million acres of such with drawn oil lands. But before these lines are read it is probable that. after this seven year campaign q leasing bill will have passed congress under which these lands can be made available to the oil developer, the government re- ceiying a royalty, in oil if it wishes it. We have, however, no such supply of oil within the United States, so far. as we now know, as will meet our nation al needs.
 In 1908 the country production of oil was 17S, ,500, 600, barrels, and there was surplus of more than 10000, ,0o9 barrels available to go into storage. Tn 1918, ten years later, the oil wells i of the United States yielded 356, 6,0005 900 barrels-nearly twice the yield in ] 190S-but to meet the demands of the increased consumption more than 24-. l O0O, 900 barrels had to be drawn from storage. The annual fuel oil consump- | tion of the railroads alone has in creased from 16 2-3 to 36 S-4 million | barrels; the annual gasoline produc- 1 ton from $40, 900 900 gallons in 1908 ! to $500 900 gallons in 1918. This reference to the record of the past may be taken not only as justifying I the earlier appeal for federal action but as wartanting deliberate atten- tion to the oil problem of today.
 Fuel oil, gasoline, lubricating oil, fol these three essentials are there nc practical substitutes or other adequat, sources? The obvious answer is il | terms of cost; the real answer is il terms of man power. Whether on lant or sea, fuel oil is preferred to coal be cause it requires fewer hremen, ant back of that, in the man power requires
 in it's mining, preparation and trans portation the advantage on the side Q
 oil is even greater. So. too, the sub Lstitute for gasoline in internal combus
 ton engines, whether alcohol or benzol
 means higher cost and larger expendt ture of labor in it's production.
 
 withdrawn will in all likelihood nak a further rich contribution to tn
 American supply.
 There are possible substitutes fo
 some petroleum products, but not fo
 the whole barrel of oil; furthermore petroleum is the cheapest niateria
 speaking duantitatively, from whic j liquid fuels and lubricants can b
 made; therefore. any substitutes ob
 tained in quantity must cost more. Al
 cohol can be substituted for gasoline
 but only in limited quantity and at in
 creased cost. Benzol from by -produc colzing ovens also Jean be used bu quantitatively is totally inadequate
 For Kerosene no quantita tive substi , tute is known. Lubricants can be ob
 tained from animal and vegetable fat. but mostly are inferior in duality an there seems 10 hope of obtaining thef
 in quantity. Fuel oil can be largel supplanted by coal, but for the interna combustion engine there is no quanti tattve substitute
 We have yentltred on a great. ship
 building program. Our people are ono again to respond to the call of the SC, :, On private ways. and on goyernmer ways, ships are being built to go roun
 the. world-ships that are to burn 0 under boilers and produce steam. presume that there is a jHstificatio for this policy, perhaps one that is a good, if not better, than can be mad for the railroads of the West pursuin
 the same policy. l submit, hoWeve , that, there should be jlstif1catio shown for the construction of any oil burning ship which does not use a engine of the Diesel type. To burn Q under a boiler. and convert it int Z steam, releases but 10 per cent of tn