New Britain herald., 1929-03-30
tt<~i IRVING OH. NJ N\~
 HIi,EiE rRIt

A'N Ni n WI ''l's VI W
 HIGHER PRICES
 Government in business So1 of 'o a good start in tH. Hoover a3u"U- is,rauon nhen rnc ~wenpiu= cjau-o was announced r.mjH- to Go>eJu- mental policy m rhn exploitation of petroleum dgro-ts ou government lands. Tho Trosid.utS policy as enunciatcd was rHat "tuyre wljJ b" no sale or di~poS:I Of government oil lands. TO matter vrar category they lie in. Of govrrum"ut hold.n-s or goyerumcn, controls. except those which may n. mandatory hy Con gress, In other worIs 'h're nGI I,e complrtc conservation of o'cruunut oil in this administration"
 This means tat t4so ve+'.rn states which rouHm lal=a areas Of pubic hand on which oil may r>.~' or is supposed 10 p>Is'. will be of- fected upon tUr dc1cote poch't nerve. It >as not surprising there fore. that Seua or Walsh 'of Montana immediately uttered loud complaint about the new policy.
 Here IS he si'uauon not Gcncr- ally realized in the Last.
 Each public land state gets part of the money paid as royalties on any leases within lis own borders. By statute this money goes for schools and public roads, Under this law each state gets &7 1-- per cent Of all royalties for tho purpose Of maintaining public roads and schools Ten por cent goes 10 the federal government and a2 1-- per cent 10 the Reclamation Fund, which also is largely for the bcno. fit Of the western States. Because ot the substantial revenue derived from oil exploitation, the western public land states with oil fields have gen ~erally demanded the development O. ~the oil with a view 10 substituting their educational and road programs. That there is a clash between the Presidents order 10 withdraw pub lie oil lands and in" attitude here tofore held by the western oil states is obvious.
 Only about one-teuth of the oil production has been from govern ment lands. But that has been con siderable when reduced to barrels. But more than half the production Of government-con oil has come from Indian lands. mostly in Oklahoma. Nearly jo.9oa.oeD bar rels is produced annually from h. dian lands, and nearly that much from other government-controlled ed lands. Naturally. the amount Of oil yielded by government lands has been a potent factor in the oil market. tending toward overproduc- tion and low prices.
 A chronic overproduction Of oil has prevailed since 1924. The flow from new wells has consistently off set the decline from old wells, and production has kept well ahead of consumption. On December 31. 1928 the stock of crude oil amounted to 4S5 million barrels, compared witf 409 million barrels in 1924. Yet since 1924. consumption increased 2l per cent
 The Hoover conservation policy has given the large oil companies their opportunity. For gears they have been attempting Q devise 3 method to curtaiI prod uction. bu' failure 10 agree upon a plan, and the possibility that numberless Iessces and wildcatters on government lands might upset the plans and produce more heavily, definitely prevented ar agreement. But with the removal ot competition from the small indc- pendents on government land the big oil companies lost no time in com ing to the long desired agreement They heartily agree 10 conserve oil and gratefully look forward to high CT prices after July ]. Indeed. gaso. line is destined to go up higher than ever before.
 This is not 10 be construed as af argument against the Hoover con servatjon policy. Ultimately, there will he 8 greatly curtailed oil sup ply anyway. and prices would so uI