Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-15
HUGHES MAY LEAD
!. OIL men IN FIGHT
Operations viii Discuss Con-
| servation Plan at Meeting
on April "a.

n the American oil industry decides
% proceed with its plan for curtail-
ment Of production, despite the Depart
ment Of Justices dictum that it would
violate the, ANTITRUST law, the country
soon may see Charles Evans Hughes
b action against the Hoover admin
tstration.
The former Secretary of State and
chief presidential campaigner for Her
bert Hoover is general counsel Of the
American Petroleum Institute.
The institute wants to effect conser-
walton by curtailment of output, which
has just been branded illegal under the
sherman act by Attorney General
Mitchell.
The institute, which virtually speaks
for the whole oil industry, will meet in
New York April "a. It will canvass the
whole situation in light Of latest de-
velopmentS. It will especially consider
the scheme advanced by DR.. Ray Lyman
Wilbur, as chairman of the Federal OH
Conservation Board, for an interstate
compact" to control output. The COM
pact would include the three or four
principal oil producing States, and the
Federal Government would be a party
to it if Congress approved.
Opinion May BE Divided.
Opinion on the Wilbur program. this
writer learns in well informed quar-
ter, is likely to be divided. One Amer
lean Petroleum Institute leader, hither-
to an earnest advocate of the plan to
curtail production on nationwide
scale, believes the Federal Oil Conserva-
ton Boards decentralization proposal
is a sound and sensible one. He thinks
it will stimulate lively interest through
out the industry. If operators have the
will, this authority seems convinced
that the Wilbur project provides the
way.
other big factors in the producing
trade are inclined to stick to their
guns. They do not think the Amer
lean Institutes proposition, officially
branded contrary to the spirit and pur-
pose of the Sherman antitrust law, de-
serves that description at all. They
deny vigorously that a systematic, wide
spread curtailment of output for def
mite period would amount to price-fiX-
inE 81 price-regulation. No such plans
are said to exist or to be contemplated.
What this thing amounts to in words
of one syllable" an authority explains,
sis that the industry simply proposes to
let a couple Of million barrels of oil
stay in the ground, instead of with
drawing it and placing 1t in storage at
q cost Of so cents a barrel. 1t is the
surplus oil, the oil the market today is
not absorbing and cannot absorb, that
it Is proposed to leave in the earth
instead of taking it out and putting it
away in tanks
Confident Of Court Verdict.
The oil men who are convinced their
:. curtailment program is vitality necessary
unless "a national disaster" is to be
avoided believe they could go to the
United States Supreme Court with their
case and win it. Some OF them heartily
favor taking that course. If it Is
adopted, Mr.. Hughes in all probability
will be the chicf legal protagonist for
the industry
Some idea of the lawyer jurist-states-
mans views on the burning subject
may be obtained from the closing pas
sages of his address before the Federal
Oil Conservation Board on May 81,
1926, when the very questions now
agitating the country were under con-
sideration.
Mr.. Hughes said:
The remedies efor oil conservation
which have been proposed to the board
are Cd scientific and 90 political
Political action is specifically attrac-
tive, but 1t Is beSet with difficulties and
1t Is not likely to succeed. Something
might be accomplished by the removal
Of legal obstacles to intelligent CO.
operation.
Cracking Process Aids Conservation.
Scientific effort holds the promise of
the future. Much has already been
accomplished. The cracking process
has done more for conservation than
any legislative scheme which could be
put into effect under our constitution
al system.
1.-THE Government can accomplish
much In stimulating and leading re-
search. The oil industry is ready to
cooperate In all practicable measures
to promote research, to attain and diff
fuse more exact knowledge and to slim
ulate invention. Throughout the in
duStry, at this time as never before, the
keenest minds are at work studying
every process, searching for improve
ment in every direction. This is, Of
course, largely due to the demands of
competition. It Is motivated by intelli-
gent self-interest.
1T cannot be doubted. in view of
the experimentation that is now going
on, that We are on the eve of impor-
tant improvements IN every department
Of the industry; in methods of pro-
duction; in the recovery of OIL that still
lies below the surface within known
fields; in the utilization of what Is pro-
duced; in the promotion of efficiency,
and in the development of substitutes.
The great service that this board
can render is to bring about an INTEL
hgent conception on the part of the
public Of the facts relating to the oil
industry, Of its problems, both economic
and legal. and to foster the scientific
Investigations upon which ultimately
the conservation of our vastly important
oil resources must depend" F. w. w.
(Copyright, 1921
Ships Of the British Navy burning oil