The Mankato free press., 1923-10-05

hnO" Wnen the next nel0 Will De
found nor where. nor what the
quantity of its output will be, nor
Its quality. 1t may be- a crude that
will yield Is percent In gasoline, or.
/ for all we know 1t may yield 80 per
cent or 100 percent in gasoline. Or
| It may have no gasoline whatever in
| IL. Or II it has some gasoline it
may be combined with other things
in such manner as TO require years
| OF work, hundreds OF thousands or
| dollars OF expense and much lab :
hextraet commercially the gasoline.
lIe oil industry is proud OF its ge-
ologists, but they not having the
gift OF clairvoyance, can only indi-
cate TO the venturesome oil men,
the more likely places where ne
can gamble his money in the hopes
OF finding Oil. Finding oil, or de-
termining it's extent when q depcs
1t Is found is not an exact science.
It's only guess and generally a
bad one at that. -
Eight Once more, therefore, in
view of the foregoing, there Is no
crude oil to market requirements.
The industry can't sit down and
cast up the probable oil needs for
the coming year and Git can't even
get a good estimate on that, but II
Il could say-200,000 barrels more
crude day. say 1t would drill so
many acres with so many wells, and
that we have a nice stretch OF oil
land over here and We will use that
this year, ~.
The people dealing in fixed min
erals like coal, iron ore, ETC., have
fairly accurate ways Of determining
forecast the amount Of work neces
sary to get out a certain amount of
their product. Ore and coal stay
where nature put them, but not oil.
It seems kind to kind Of wander
around way down in the earth. here
today and gone tomorrow, The coal
people can say how much coal they
can mine this year from present
shafts but the oil men can't more
than guess at how much oil they
will get ont OF present wells, and
it's liable to be q bad guess as not.
No one knows what's in an oil well
until 1t has been brought out and
the well is dry. f. .
So the oil industry has to take
the oil as II comes. One day 1t has
more oil than II knows what to do
with. The next it is drawing heav-
lily on It's stocks OF crude Oil and
thousands of men are drilling In ali
sorts of fool places trying to find
another field. Maybe they hit a
new field in a month, maybe in six
months maybe not for year or
more.
Gasoline cannot be manufactured
at the ridiculously low price that it
To- .k s. MI today,
but many manufacturers whom we
have mentioned were compelled to
turn gasoline into money by what
ever means possible.
III all the refining companies that
are In the business - today were tn
run In distressed gasoline to their
stations selling at the ridiculously
low price in many places. the result
would be the closing down Of al
refneries, throwing thousands O
men out OF employment. and on the
other hand, curtailing further the
production Of crude oil.
A great many people are wonder +,
ing why refining companies have
not made reduction in gasoline
according to reduction in crude oils
since the war. While 1t is fact
that during the war crude oil was
selling at $500 barrel the peak
price of gasoline at that time was
approximately Is cents higher than
present market price in Minnesota.
] think that the general public
will admit that during the war the
oil industry was one OF the big in
dustries capable of taking care Of
their own problems, and the one
this United States a square deal 1
1t was one industry that eliminated
profteering. During the war there
was great demand for all petro-
leum products This, of course. had
effect on price OF all products pro-
duced from crude oil. Paraffine
wax was selling at 10 cents per
pound in comparison with little
over two cents per pound today.
Filtered Cylinder Stocks were sell
ing for around 40 cents per gallon |
proximateiy half this price. WHIT
a great many refining com mpanies in
the Pennsylvania field to-day p
compelled to take the price of crude
oil and even lower for high grade !
kerosene that they have put through |
an expensive manufacturing pro-
cess, fuel oils are selling in tank |
car lots for little over half for |
what is being paid for crude.
There is, in fact no industry in !
existence today, that amounts to |
but what has caused some |
company OF men a lot Of strenuous |
effort and money to build up Once |
the confidence In this industry Is |
torn down, 1t causes a lot OF mon
ey and lot more effort to again |
build 1t up. and eventually the peo |
pie In general have to pay, because !
it Is one of the facts of nature that |
we cannot get away from, that no |
company OF men are going to keep |
their money invested In a business
for any great length of time unless |
1t Is showing them a reasonable |
profit on their investment.
In closing, We want to give YOU a
little Information in regard to con-
1itions of our company The Ma |
tional Refining company has oper-
ated In the state of Minnesota for
several years and have had offices
IN the City of Mankato approyi- +
mately FIVE years and distribution
In the twin cities for two years I
Our pay roll Of employees residing |
in Mankato approximates $4,000 per /
month to say nething of represen
.atives working in other parts OF
the state.--A. p. Bergner, manager
of the National Refining company.
Why 20 They7
New York man shot himself as