Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-12
STABILITY IN OIL
PRICES EXPECTED
Warning Factions of Industry
Are Ready to Declare
Armistice.
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
TULSA, November 12.-Armistice day
looked to the midcontinent oil industry
considerably like a real time for stack
ing arms and getting down TO the bust
ness OF peace-time competition and
hustle.
As the industry's leaders sat about
the council table in Chicago at the
annual meeting of the American Pc
troleum Institute, the junior executives,
just plain hired hands and others left
behind. parked their feet on the near
est desks, mulled over the events of
the last few months and tried to take
a circumspect peep into the immediate
future.
The recent past has brought to !
close, for the time being. anyhow, that
chaSers for higher prices for crude oil.
Advance Seems Permanent.
The 15-cent general advance for
crude OF last week appears permanent
and has caused the calamity howlers
among the small producers, who al
legged they were losing their shirts" to
quicker their lips once more in q smile.
With these should be classed the roy
atty holders, too, to whom the price Of
crude Is all important.
There has been q steady strengthen-
ing OF the refinery market, the tank
wagon price Of gasoline has gone up q
cent, and the buying public has not so
far complained at the price at the
pump.
In the recent past there has come
an end, except technically, of the mill
tary regime in the flush fields of Okla
! homa and East Texas.
With this, came the broadest stabili-
zation program yet attempted-the
State-enforced agreement to hold the
| midcontinent flow with the national
production to a level that would assure
the withdrawal OF considerable volume
OF oil daily from heavily over burdened
storage. These and the avowedly ex-
cellent statistical condition of the in
dustry to which they contributed, ap-
parently pointed to a more nearly nor
NAL Fall and Winter season than the
OIL world has known since the great
Okianoma City oil field was discovered,
nearly three years ago.
What steps the chiefs in Chicago
! would take to make permanent present
favorable factors and eliminate a num-
Der OF vexing conditions sim existent,
could not be forecast.
Question Of Arbiter.
Matters before the A. p. I. of broadest
importance are subjects that have been
oloCucScU So Ihr Win VelVet tongues.
Whether the oil industry should take
the praise or blame for seeking repeal
OF the antitrust laws to permit more
orderly, economical and, eventually,
more extensive recovery Of oil from
future pool discoveries, is one of these.
Whether the industry should have an
umpire or arbiter is another Some OBJ
servers here have taken the stand that
CALIFORNIA; proposed experiment along
| that line would result in precedents and
experiences that would aid the industry
| nationally If and when it felt the time
ripe for appointment Of a GEAR" for the
| entire United States.
And there's that troublesome tariff
| question. Whether to follow Writ
Franklin. the independents leader. and
E. B. Reeser, the A. p I. president, in
an intensive campaign for a tariff, rely
upon importers to be careful not to up-
set domestic markets, or to pass the
subject up as relatively unimportant
basically at this time, is a question only
| the f1nal vote will answer.
But regardless of what the meeting
accomplisheS or brings to light, the in
dustry admittedly is in vastly better
condition than it was last Armistice
! day, and many elements are peaceful
now that were raging in bitter strife
only few months ago.