The Washington times., 1928-01-03
PLANS FOR OIL
ARE AIRED
By MERRYLE 5. RUExEYsER

BY MERRYI4E 8. RUKEYSER
NEW York, Jan. 3. THE Gov
eminent, the legal profession and
oil producers have united to try TO
place the anarchic, unscientific and
melodramatic petroleum industry
on sensible basis.
The urge for change springs
springs from no spontaneous re-
forming impulses; It Is q direct re-
suit or the disaster In the oil In
dustry which primitive, wasteful
methods of productions and ire
rnendous overproduction- wrought
last year. Whereas, arguments
previously fell upon deaf ears, the
vanishing of business profits in the
petroleum industry Iii 1927 shook
the leaders of the romantic tn.
dnstry from their lethargy. Pos
sibly the industry II on the
threshold Of q revolu tionary trans
formation from validating to the
status Of scientific management.
RockefelIer Plan
The elder John d. Rockefeller
tried to give the industry CO..
ordinated and rational leadership
through vast combinations and
trusts, which the Government
broke up III 1911. Like worm,
the STANDARD OH organism divided
into pieces, each of which con-
tinued d healthy, growing life.
The units became increasingly
prosperous, but gradually began
to act more Or less independen
The Government restored COM
petition and It came back with u
vengeance.
Now the Government sponsors
new movement to reconcile
competition with sound industrial
management. AT the suggestion
Of Secretary Hubert Work. slaair-
man Of President C0oIidgess Fed
eraI OIL Conservation Board. b
committee Of nine has been
chosen to find d way out Of
the Industrial wilderness III will
start its hearings at Washing
ton on January rs. Up TO Ian
nary 10. 1t will welcome con-
structive suggestions from those
with pet schemes and remedies.
Slowly there is trend toward
q national oil policy.
Job Of Committee
The committee consists 81 three
appointees DE the Government,
three representative Of the amer
lean Bar AsaOciatf ton. ana three
of the American Petroleum In
stitute. The special job Of the
committee II to attempt to work
out feasible plan for the or
DERBY production Of oil.
More than year ago the
board itself sponsored unit OBJ
Grafton OF oil wells. instead Of
present hit-Or-miss and Wasteful
competitive drilling. but thus far
its report has been pigeOnhOled.
One reason for this was that
until recently the majority of
the 0iI men themselves were
cool to the idea. Some of the
big companies feared that any
tinkering might interfere with
their supply of petroleum. But
AuNGIHAk8 0E.5 - OA - = AAA1@sNAtAysr
Of heart.
Waste Prevention
AT its meeting last month the
institute committed itself more
or less to a program that one
Of It's members. Henry y. Do
herty. had been publicly advo-
eating for four years and had
been considering for eight years.
The institute recommended that
the oil producing States and the
Federal Government pass laws to
prevent the waste OF gas hold
ing that the dissipation OF gas can-
not be avoided Tin an OH pool
where there Is diversified owner
ship, so long as any one operator,
through selfish disregard for the
correlative rights of his neighbors
or through desire to capture more
oil than underlies his property
continues to waste gas and refuses
to cooperate with his neighbOrs in
adopting preventive measures.
The institute also asked for leg
islation giving sanction and eff
feet TO agreements by oil pro-
ducers and for the curtailment Of
production in pools whore and dur
ing periods when there is overpro-
duction having for their purpose
the economical and ORDERLY produc-