Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-08-29
SELL SHORT On The Petroleum Industry
Only After You Have Read The Following

Suppose that some strange blight should
suddenly obliterate all petroleum products
in America.
26,O0O,OOO automobiles would immed-
lately be stalled along every street and
highway in the country.
Airplanes would be grounded.
Thousands Of vessels would lie notion
less at their moorings.
Lights would blink out in nearly every
home and farm and factory in the nation.
Elevators would be stationary, and
the great skyscrapers of the nation prac-
tieally useless.
Road building would be halted.
Many medicines would be wiped out of
existence; the neYer-ending battle against
disease would be dangerously hampered.
Appliances for home convenience would
be unusuable
Wheels of nearly every description
would stop turning, and industries Of all
kinds would be paralyzed.
Farm work would revert to the druid
gerry of former generations.
Millions Of homes and other buildings
would be without the means for warmth.
Cities would no longer receive the
steady flow of fresh fruits and vegetables
which contribute so greatly to health
through long winter months.
An inestimable number Of men and
women would be thrown out of work.
More than one billion dollars a year
would be lost to the nation in direct
taxes alone plus 1876, 900 900
spent by the petroleum industry for sup
plies $2OO,O0O,000 given farmers
and other landowners (royalty) for drill
ling privileges and $1,216, 764,0O
paid out in wages.
Luckily there is no danger of any such
catastrophe striking America. Petroleum
resources are sufficient for many years
to come and, in addition, the petroleum
industry has taken intelligent and effec-
tive steps toward conservation.
But merely imagining the chaos that
would exist without petroleum, gives an
idea Of the vital role this one material
plays in the daily lives of every man,
woman and child in the country
Life Blood of Industry
Petroleum, i'm fact, has become as i'm
pOrtant to our modern civilization as our
blood is to our bodies. 1t flows through
all the Industrial arteries Of America to
turn the wheels or provide the fabrication
for every machine that moves.
Yet three short generations ago, pet
roleum was virtually unknOwm--just an
other waste product from Natures album
dant storehouse, skinned from the
streams of western Pennsylvania, and sold
as an Indian medicament from the tails
of torchlit wagons.
How does 1t happen that this obscure
substance grew from such humble be-
ginnings to its present far-reaching inn
portance? p
How did it become the nucleus for one
OF the great industries OF our day-an in
dustry which is the nations largest tax
payer, a builder of good roads, and an
indispensable aid to modern manufac-
ture agriculture and transportation?
The answer, like the answer to many
In. fhn sproNn mi 1y
and enterprise of American business men.
American initiative dug deep into the
earth for this mysterious material, studied
it, heated it, broke it into many parts
and with ii, solved needs that have exist
ed since the beginning Of time.
American initiative sought and found
new ways to utilize It's potencies
created and filled new needs devised
new and better forms Of light, heat,
motion, power.
The Romance of Oil
Truly, there is romance to the story
of oil. But it is romance not of Wild
cat wells and sudden wealth, but rather
Of research and perseverance and worth
while achievement.
It would be difficult to think Of any
other one substance in all history from
which so many benefits have been de-
rived or from which most benefits
have been so widely shared and distri-
buted.
But it must be remembered that this
universal sharing has taken place in
America alone under the American
system of business.
Other countries. also have vast de-
Dosfts of oil. But in no other country
are
The wages of petroleum workers so
high;
The uses of these products so wide
spread;
Their quality so superior;
Or their benefits so generally enjoyed
by all the people.
Let's consider, for moment, the part
-layed by the American petroleum in
dustry in lifting the burden OF back
breaking physical labor from American
working men, and widening the scope
of their activities.
The standard theoretical unit Of the
rate of work is horsepower"
A mans capacity for physical activity
is generally estimated at one-tenth OF
horsepower. There are some 100000