The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-06
THE PRICE OF GASOLINE

THE PRICE OF GASOLINE
 The price of gasoline and kerosene touches practically every family either directly or indirectly, most of them directly. Those who do not buy gasoline must help pay for the gasoline used in the administering to their necessities, whether it is through the price added to cover the cost of delivering purchases by motor truck, or whether it is through charges added to defray the cost of gasoline used in some other way to produce or place on the market commodities in gen. eral use and demand. Those who do buy gasoline find themselves frequently obliged to submit to price increases arbitrarily im- posed and without there having been offered any explanation why there should be such increase. The domestic use of kerosene is as common and general as to need no illus tration.
 Almost everybody therefore, is concerned with the situation as it exists in the oil industry and interested in the results of the senate inquiry into the conduct of oil com panies. As was strongly suspected the com mittee finds that the Standard Oil companies are in complete "control and domination" of the industry, and exercise their control Gin such manner as to fix the price which the producer of crude oif receives at the well, the price which the refiner receives for his gasoline and kerosene, as we'll as the retail price paid by the consumer" Such a situation is evidently in violation. of the intent of the antitrust laws, which were designed to prevent that sort of thing. That is a subject for the department of justice to take up, and which the people would be pleased to see it pursue with vigor.
 Oil is one of the important natural re- sources of this country. It is both mili- tary and domestic necessity. The way it's exploitation is conducted and the man. ner in which it is marketed, the price charged and the conservation of the supply for future needs are subjects of national concern and amenable to federal restriction and control. Continually there are printed reports tending to show that our reserve supply of oil underground is steadily di- minishing, and that the day is approaching when this nation shall be chiefly an inn porter instead of an exporter of this essen- tial product. It is a question of grave im- portance how far a national public necessity may be exploited principally for the private gain instead of for the public benefit. In the of oil, it appears that the private interest has been considered almost to the exclusion of the public welfare.
 The threat of oil monopoly has long been an object of public apprehension, in tha. it has been the general impression that the retail charges for oil products have been L;<rho {k,,, AI.A L.. price is arbitrary rather than based on fair profit. As if in confirmation of this general belief the senate commission re- ports: "f few great oil companies are permitted to manipulate prices for the next few years as they have been doing since 1920, the people of this country must be prepared before long to pay at least one dollar a gallon for gasoline" Naturally, as the people of this country find gasoline more and more indispensable, they can be led to pay more and more for it, as the price is raised by imperceptible degrees, until that price may become extortionate. If the committees report can be verified, re- pressive action should not be delayed until that time arrives.
 To be sure, the people of this country are against too much government in business, and big concerns use that as rallying cry to public opinion when any new exercise of governmental control is about to be attempt ed. When, however, monopolies abuse ths public right and welfare in exploiting do- mestic essentials, then the obligation and authority to protect the people against such aggression rests with their government. Monopolies and companies formed to ex- ploit natural resources-the right to exploit which inheres in and is granted by the peo- pie through their government-have it within their own power to keep government out of their business. The way to do this is so to administer their industry as to recognize the rights of the people and not to transgress their privileges, nor the laws wisely formu- lated for the nuh1ic nrotection