Evening star., 1924-12-11
OIL MEN STRIVING
To Win CONFIDENCE
Texas Session Designed to
Improve Relations of In
dustry to Public.
BY ROBERT t. SMALL.
FORT WORTH. Tex.. Decemher

roltT WORTH, Tex, December IL
The oil men of the country, repre-
tsnting the second largest industry
a. the United States come from
grange places.
They hail from downtown Broad
." ay in New York, from State street
j Chicago, from San Francisco and
los Angeles and from many places in
f'etween. But at last they have met
here, in the land where the oil actu-
ally springs from, to discuss their
problems and to- endcavor to set
themselves in proper light before
1ss public.
For the oil men have not forgotten
rhe Incident Of the little black bag"
and Ell that il implied The owner of
ne little black bag is not here, and
7he oil men are glad Of that.
Souvenirs Recall Past
At welcoming banquet given them
by Anon G. Carter the directors and
members of the American Petroleum
Institute received little black bags al
souvenirs. Eut the contents were not
Jraught with danger to the public
morals, and the oil producers and
uarketers and executives will carry
hem home as evidence that the little
black bag has come to mean some
ming else III the iudustry-the warm
he sinister influence at Washington
It is strange admixture, this
oueettng of the men of oil. There has
been Il lure to oil almost equal to
nat of the gold OF California. So
hreat has been this lure that the
rude petroleum pouring from the
bowels of the earth has come to be
known as BLACK gold" But. now
there is little left for the wild
catter"; the search for oil has become
al but a fixed science
The old-time prospector of the
a Hining rod is gone. The young
college fellow is coming into his
own; the geologists have covered vir-
1ually the entire face of the earth.
they know where the producing
sands and the pools are likely to be
FOUND; the only question is whether
or not the production will reach a
quantity that will be profitable.
Gushers Wow scarce.
1t is no easy task. this supplying
the world with oil. The "gushers"
are few and far between. For the
most part the black streams of
petroleum must be coaxed from the
earth by unceasing eroaning, creak-
ing pumping, by day aud by night
There is nothing more dismal in all
creation than n reluctant oil field.
Net the pumps groan on and the sup
ply is maintained.
MinglinE here at the first meeting
OF the petroleum institute held in the
OF field country are the men of Wall
street.-the operator, the bankers and
brokers, and the men of sHarthy skin
and wrinkled cheeks who are Just in
from the fields Some have come
from the far corners of Arizona and
New Mexico, where they will tell you
tho heat is SO great that even the
lizards have to walk on tiptoe to
Keep from scorching their stomachs
Net these men drill and drill and
bore and bore. hopeful always that
IN the next stratum Rf sand they
VIII strike the fortune which always
ssems but a half pipes length away.
Relation to Public.
And while the oil men. big and lit
tie, feel the necessity of getting on
better terms with the public, they are
inclined to joke among themselves at
The gyrations OF the oil investiga-
tions at Washington. They have
laughed immoderately al the after
dinner speaker who says that out
here in the great open spaces. where
men are men, they dig through dirt
TO get oil. whereas in Washington
they dig through oil to get dirt.
Ihe relation of the industry to the
public is one of the most important
subjects to be discussed at this meet
ing of the institute. There will be
an effort TO show that oil production
- nothing like trust and that the
price of gasoline to the owner of the
1iivver does not go up and down
merely at the whim of the oil bar
"ns." Half q dozen Standard Oil
companies are represented here, but
they are here as competitors, seek
ing to cooperate, rather than as en-
pArors of the field assuming to- die
tate. Production has gone beyond
the standards; the Independents have
found their place in the sun.