Evening star., 1935-11-05
NATURAL GAS QUIZ
IS URGED BY HOLT
Senator Claims Those in
Control Are Active
in Politics.

Broadening the scope OF MS WaT
against the utilities. Senator Rush D.
Holt, Democrat of West Virginia, last
night urged thorough investigation
of the activities of those interests
which control the natural gas indus
try. Senator Holt spoke in the Ma
tional Radio Forum, sponsored by The
Evening Star and broadcast over a
National Broadcasting Co. network.
Prefacing his recommendations with
an outline of the background OF the
industry, in which he declared four
big companies control So per cent
Of the industry, the Senator said:
Il know of no group. not even the
power trust, that is more active IN
politics than those who control the
gas industry. They interest them
selves in all elections, munlclpal,
State and congressional.
Control Seeking Charged.
"They try to control municipal
officials so that the cities and towns
will not have rate cases. They try to
control the State officials in order that
no public service commissioner Will be
appointed that would be so-called un-
friendly or that no member OF the
LEGISLATURE be named who would in
troduce a bill making pipe lines COM
mon carriers or investigate their ac-
tivities.
THE same lobbyists who represent
the power companies in many instances
are lobbyists for the gas companies.
They have and are interested In
getting propaganda into our schools.
There were about 7166,o00 consumers
of natural gas In 1893, the Senator said.
the gross revenue being s375 900 600.
Text OF Address.
The text of Senator Hollis address
follows:
In discussing utilities, the public has
not paid much attention to the gas in
dustry. Tonight I will discuss that
problem. In 1915. while drilling salt
we'll In Charleston, w. Va, gas was
discovered. A few years thereafter at
Fredonia, N. Y, a we'll was drilled
which yielded gas Natural gas has
been in use for ITO years but the most
rapid growth has come in the past 10
or IS years It was not until 1872 that
the first iron-pipe line was laid for
any distance: it was approximately 5
miles long Gas is produced in "a
States in gas areas-the Appalach-
tan. covering the States of New York
Pennsylvania. Ohio. West Virginia and
Kentucky the Southern. covering the
States of Louisiana and the Texas
Panhandle; the Rocky Mountain, in
the States of Montana. Wyoming
Utah, New Mexico and the California
field.
With the advent of the seamless pipe
in 1925. the industry started its rapid
growth. We find that pipe lines have
now been built so that natural gas is
at the gateway of almost every city
east of the Rockies except in New Eng
land and a few Southern cities. Re
Gently the natural gas interests filed
q brief before committee of the
United States Senate stating that
there were approximately $4,000 miles
of gathering and transmission lines
and about 10000 miles of local dis
tribution mains furnishing natural ga,
to approximately 5000 communities
In the year of 1888, 7,166.000 domestic
and commercial consumers we're sup.
piled, as compared to approximately
3,500,000 in 1925. When one realizes
that 1t has been estimated that the
gas industry has a potential energy OF
from five to six times that OF the power
and electric industry, one will realize
this gigantic setup. Moody's volume Of
Public Utilities estimates that the gas
industry Cboth manufactured and nat
uraD has capital investment In ex-
cess Of s4500,00o, 900, with 1900, 900
consumers and a gross revenue of
ss00,o00,o0
100000 Consumers.
Manufactured gas has approx
r1ately 10000, 900 consumers. Although
am not discussing manufactured gas
1t might interest you to know that the
consumers for this product increased
113 per cent between 1910 and 1880;
100000, 100000 cubic feet we're used in
1894, of which 100000 .o0o. 900 cubic
feet were sold to domestic and house
heat sales, with revenue Of S312. .000.-
900 of the $3.50 900 900 for the indus
try. To produce this, it took 1000, 300
tons Of bituminous coal, 1872 tons Of