The Cordova daily times., 1921-10-10
COAL NOT OIL IS CLAIMED TOBE
 FUELBASE

ton is based on coal, and will be for many generations to come, in spite of tendencies which seem to imply that the burden Is shifting to petroleum according to Dr. Arthur D. Little, prominent industrial chemist of Bos ton. Dr. Little. in an address on "En- ergy; Its Sources and Future Fossil bilities," delivered before the Ameri- can Chemical Society during its an nual meeting here.
 pr. Little declares that, however far the transfer may proceed. the carry ing power of petroleum is temporary and is likely to be brief Much must be done. he said, to bring about the better utilization of coal, and before the energy reserves already at our
 command are used up some other method of developing energy must be devised. Chemists believe that this will be accomplished through transmit tation of the energy in ordinary mat, ter.
 These are the coal resources of the world units of 1000 900 tons, as given by pr. Little from figures prepared by the estimate of the twelfth geographi- cal congress: including 3O0O,OOO units of Ignite. the worlds total coal reserves are about 100000 units, of which over 5OOO.OO0 are in North America, l,2SO,0OO in Asia and 7Si,OOO in Europe The known supply of Africa is slightly more than 1 per cent of that of North America, but Africa has nearly twice as much as South America. Australia is credited with 17O,00O units. or about three times the African reserve"
 These estimates of the worlds re serves undoubtedly include much very inferior coal" says Dr. Little, and much that cannot he mined without great difficulty by reason of it's depth or the manner of it's occurrence. There is, therefore. considerable di. vergence among authorities in their classification into actual. probable and possible reserve in the various regions of the world
 Natural gas has been aptly desig mated Natures bonus to America. n-a ..,,h ,S o,,r ,,DpuIatipp ia v.bntIv dependent upon it for lighting, cook. ing and heating. but even so it's larger uses are industrial About two-thirds of the total output is burned in manu featuring plants under boilers or util. iZed in metalmrpical operations. ce- ment kilns, glass-making and pottery furnaces. Much of the cheaper gas is burned for carbon black. IL is a wan ing resource IL has been wasted shamefully In volume waste has run parallel with use and often outstripped it. In 1917 we used about SOO,OOO,- | 900 ,OOO cubic feet. which was three fourths of all gas sold in the country. We also wasted SO0.OO0 900 900 cubic . feet. and with it much gasoline. We are not wasting quite as effectively now The supply is running out and . our 1920 production was below 650,, 900 100000.
 The same phrase applies with equal | force to our development of petroleum, of which the United States now pro duces about 70 per cent of the worlds supply. As in the case of natures gas our reserves are rapidly nearly deple ton and can hardly maintain our pres ent rate of production for more than twenty years. We have wasted more than we have used. Our 100000 pro. ducing wells leave more than half the oil under ground, and less than half of what they take out reaches the pipe line Then we burn half of that as a substitute for coal, of which we have 6,OOO years supply. We need an intelligent economic policy in these |  United States, and power to enforce | ii. The basic cause of this orgy of waste and the unrcstrained produc- tion that makes it cheaper to burn oil than coal is the small individual hold. | ing. The owner must hustle to get his oil out, or it will be taken by others from under his feet.
 Nearly 5.0OOoOo,OOO barrels of pc troleum have been produced in the United States since the Drake well was drilled in 1859 We are now thought to have about 7,000,00O 900 bar rcls remaining. from which we are now drawing nearly 4OO,OOO0OO barrels a ,rnar 1p a rapidIv riginp c,trya pf r,rp-