The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-03-16
Company for the Wheat Grower

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If misery loves company, as the old adage asserts 1t
does, the wheat producer may get some satisfaction by
taking a glance at the oil industry.
If the farmer has been suffering from too much
wheat, the average oil man has been suffering from too
much petroleum. The result is the same in each case
The farmer gets next to nothing for his whea. and the
Gilman gets very little for his oil.
The similarity of the two situations persists through
efforts to obtain relief from congress and the fact that
those efforts have failed to prove wholly satisfactory.
A statement issued by officials of the Independent
Petroleum association Of America outlines the situation
It says:
Regardless of the long fight of the independent oil
men, congress again failed to limit the importations OF
foreign oil-and hardly had the gavels in the senate and
in the house marked the end of the list congress than
drastic reductions in the price of crude oil were an
nounced throughout all of the fields of the United States
These reductions came regardless of the successful fight
that the industry has been making to reduce its daily
production Of crude oi-and its unsuccessful fight ia
make corresponding reductions in its staggering stocks
of crude oil which today stand at around 5000 600 bar
rels. On March 10, 1880, the production of crude oil in
the United States averaged about 100000 barrels a
day and on March 10, 1881, about 100000 barrels a day
Or a reduction of $4,000 barrels a day in crude produc-
ton.
1.-THE average price of crude oil throughout the United
States on March 10. 1880. was about 10 a barrel and
the output at that time was worth about 1914, 600
a day.
"On March 10, 1881, the average price of crude oil
throughout the country was about IS cents a barrel and
the output was worth about 81, $4,000 a day. This means
that the gross income from the production Of crude oil
dropped from $3,144,000 a day to $l,785 00c q day-a
shrinkage Of 1869, 900 a day"
With the farmer it is the exportable surplus which
causes his trouble. With the oil men 1t is the imported
surplus, for oil is steadily being imported into this coun-
try by the larger refiners.
With production at 100000 barrels a day, 2,2ee,Oo
barrels a day are going to the stills, but the surplus is
not being diminished because of oil brought in from
Mexico, South America and other international fields.
Thus, that huge stock of surplus oil hangs over the
market like a sword, much in the same manner that the
surplus of wheat hangs over the grain market.
AS almost always is the case in an economic crisis,
there is a villain in the piece. In this case, of course,
it is the oil importers, those firms which are big enough
to have interests outside of continental United States.
These firms, the independents contend, are making new
records for big profits while, at the same time, "thou-
sands of workers have lost their jobs and hundreds of
operators have lost their properties" because of their al
legged refusal to curtail the importation of petroleum.
Another factor hobs up in the situation which dis
courages the "little fellow" It Is the fact that, while
production in the United States has been curtailed in an
effort to work off the surplus-this having been done
on a prorata basis suggested by the president-the i'm
porters have refused to extend the proration principle to
their activities. Unless some action is taken, the prorata
agreement made among producers in this country may
be cast aside and this valuable natural resource wasted
in large measure by a battle for survival among the oil
giants Of America.
AS he views the plight of the oil industry, therefore,
the agriculturist may find some blessings Of his own
which heretofore have seemed Of doubtful quality. If he
does his part by reducing production Of wheat so as to
make the tariff on that grain effective, the tariff is there
to take effect.
We commonly think of oil in terms Of easy money, but
the petroleum men are talking in a different key these
days. They actually envy the farmer his opportunity
to pull himself out of the hole by curtailing production
of some things and expanding in others, for curtalment
has done them no good and they have no allied lines
of industry to which they may devote their energies.