Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-06-23
INVESTIGATION OF GASOLINE
INDUSTRY is UNDERWAY
Daily Letter by Frederic j.. Haskin.

lis no tax at all upon the memoir ~
recall when the price was from -
to 16 cents per gallon. In TACT, IL
was only sewn or eight years ago
that such prices obtained. Between
July 1914 and July 1916, however
the price advanced 20 per cent. Ihls
sharp advance was attributed by au-
thorities to increased demand II
was moi ascribed 10 increased pro-
duction costs. On the contrary, the
greater demand was said 10 lave
stimulated improvements IN proouc-
ton methods such h a 1t might
have been assumed that production
costs would be reduced.
In congressional circles there are
those who see a direct connection
between the high price OF gasoih\
and the enormous earnings OF the
Standard Oil Company, together
with its subsidiary and associated IN
~terests and other oil producers of the
country. Senator Mcclellan, Tennes
see, was the first 10 introduce a
resolution calling for an investiga-
ton and it was adopted promptly
by the Senate on MAY IL. Later.
Senator La Toilette, of Wisconsin,
who is the chairman of the COM
mittee charged with conducting the
inquiry, introduced another resolu-
ton which gives The investigators
wider latitude and greater author
ity in order that the job may be a
, thorough one.
The La Toilette resolution may be
said to be a drastic one, permit
ting the committee to summon wit
nesses, subpoena documents, papers
and records of all kinds, and to en-
ploy counsel to aid in getting to the
bottom of the subject. 1t is to be
taken for granted that the oil and
gasoline interests will be represent
ed at the investigation by an array
of attorneys and experts such as is
seldom brought together. and the
Wisconsin senator has said that he
wants the best legal assistance in
the country in order to make sure
that the public interest is safe
guarded.
With millions of automobiles.
motorcycles, trucks, tractors, motor
boats. airplanes and stationary gas
engines of various kinds in opera
ton in the United States, and with
tho owners of them all buying gaso-
line every day, it is obvious hat in
terest in the La Toilette investiga-
ton will be widespread. Moreover
the use of the gasoline enters into
the pleasures and recreations of a
large. part of the population. as well
as into their business activities,
Hence anything affecting it or the
price of it is doubly important.
Once A Waste Product
Gasoline, like all other product:
of crude petroleum, was for a Ions
time disposed of as waste in tn
effort to make kerosene. 1t wa:
there and it had to come out. Rep
resenting almost the highest compo
nent of crude oil, gasoline is ex
traeted by a distilling process, jus
as whiskey is produced, and in mucl
the same sort of apparatus. 1t
of a highly volatile nature, so nearl,
a a that when exposed TO the al
it rises in an invisible vapor an
will quickly ~evaporate. IL cannc
be confined for any length of tim
repeatedly coated inside with wa
and painted outside to make Their
alright. Even in the coolest weathe
it will pass through the wood.
Until about fifty years ago prac
tically the only market for gasolin
was in Europe and it was exporte
in small quantities. No one dream
ed then that il was to become on
of the indispensable necessities o
daily life. Generals who directe
the Civil War in this country an
the Franco-Prussian War in Europ
would have been amused at the sus
gestion that the time would com
when a great war could not b
fought without this fuel. They coul
not have visualized the development
OF motor transport. of gas-drive,
aircraft and seacraft. and of tn
lighting tanks that played such
vital part in the recent World Wa
A century ago a newspaper edito
suggested that the time would com
when the mails would be transporte
through the air but II is doubtful thu
that prophetic genius had a visio
of the modern light fuel that woul
make possible the flight of heavie
than air machines.
When the demand for more case
line began to press upon the petrC
leum industry II was met at first /
the recovery of more leasing hea
gas" Petroleum and natural ga
come from the same wells, an
usually on the first flow the gas
in the excess, for 1t is simply til
vapor of the oil. Much natural "a