The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-09-24
PUBLIC To PAY
CAS- WAR
COSTS
President Of MarIand Company
Outlines Conditions in
Price-cutting Struggle.
BY w. s. COUSINS.
Copyright. 1898, by Cosmopolitan


Copyright 1898, by Cosmopolitan
News Service.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 24.--"The
consumer OF gasoline on the At
lantic seaboard is paying around
% cents for a gallon Of gasoline
which Is laid down in New York
harbor at 8 to 10 cents a gallon.
"The marketing branch of the
price war this year, the cost of
which the American public will be
many years in paying.
con cannot be produced and re-
fined into gasoline in Oklahoma by
even tho best producers-refiners
and sold at less than Is cents a
gallon at their refineries and let
them stay in the oil business very
long"
These were among significant
declarations made here today by
z. w. MARYLAND, president of the
Marland Oil Company. in an ex-
elusive interview with Cosmopolitan
News Service
Industry Not o Game.
He raised the question as to who
received the ''other l. or Is cents
a gallon" above the cost OF dc.
livering refined gasoline In New
York, and asserted such a profit
for retail distributors was RI
The oil industry must cease to
be played as game AMI so on
as business.
THE oil game as formerly play.
ed by individual producers Is fin
ished. No longer can they hazard
their money and equipment to pro-
duce oil at loss for the Joy riding
public. for the individual producers
are either broke or rapidly going
broke
Unless the American investor
is willing to furnish the money for
the expensive process Of locating,
producing and refining the future
supply Of oil. the American con.
sumner will have TO 90 without oil.
THE Mid Continent Producer.1se.
finer today receives about cents
a gallon on the spot market for
gasoline. To secure this commodity
he must search for years for
sources Of crude oil, drill his wells
to a depth of 1000 to 1000 feet and
pump out the oil, transport it
through many miles Of pipe line
to his refinery, extract the gasoline
by expensive processes and enorrn-
GUS amortization costs and deliver
1t in his own tank cars by rail to
his customers, who In turn trans
port the gasoline by rail or water
or both, to the place Of ultimate
consumption.
Transportation OF gasoline for
1000 miles by rail and water from
the MIDI Continent to the New York
harbor costs today about IA cents
a gallon. California gasoline is be
ing offered at the price Of to 10
cent laid down in New York har-
Dor.
Costs Of Production.
who gets the other IL or ia
cents and why? It is not material
who gets it, but why he gets that
proportion Of the total price paid
by. the public Is material.
1.-THE American public is not pay
ing all that 1t costs to find, pro
duce. refine and market gasoline
The consumer is buying his gaso
line at less than the cost of pro
duction. OH cannot be discovered
produced and refined into gasoline
in Oklahoma by even the besI
producers-refiners and sold at lesi
than. 10 cents gallon at thetl
refIneries and let them stay in TIT
business Of producing and refinint
oil very long. 1t costs less thar
three cents to pay the transporta
ton cost and lay that gasoline
down from the mid-continent t.
the tanks of the marketer in New
York. harbor. How many cents pc
gallon he needs above eighteeI
cents to pay his costs Of distri
button, / do not know, although h
needs nothing like the margin o
twelve cents.
1.-THE American consuming pub
lie should be very much concerne'
about the distribution of In
twenty-five cents per gallon he i
now paying for gasoline. 1t shout,
be apparent that that part of tn
petroleum industry which is re
ceiving six cents per gallon 70
this gasoline has billions of dol
lars invested In hazardous I'm
| bility OF a serious shortage Of 1t
crude supply.
Supply Is In Danger.
If the present price for crude al
at the refineries continues yer,
long, the American consuming pub
lie will inevitably find itself with
out a sufficient supply of gaso
| line"
Last year, according to Marland
| the producing end of the oil industry
spent $750,000,O00 in finding and
drilling producing properties. AID
proximately 10000 wells were drilled
| of which about $4,000 wells were
! productive. The oil sold from these
| new wells and the oil sold from
260, 000-old wells in the United States
netted the producers less than the
| cost Of drilling the new wells drilled
| last year, declared MarIand. Ar
amount of money equal to that re
ceived by the American Producers
from the sale Of all of their oil from
| 260,000 old wells went into the bust