Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-11-18
PLEASE, WON'T YOU HELP?

Our daily mail has been more
than doubled by correspondence
growing out of the recent pubIica-
ton of digest of the proposed Cole
bill, which is coming up in the
1910 session of congress and which
may have an important influence on
the future OF Montana oil develop
ment along with the rest of the oil
industry.
This organization has members in 10
states and from practically every one of
those states we have heard opposition TO
the Cole bill. 1t is possible that our pre-
sentation was entirely one-sided. 1t was
not our version but that of a California
organization which has devoted much
study TO the Cole bill. However recent
hearings i'm Washington, both of the
TNEC and the Cole committee. have con-
WINGED us that there is only one con-
clusiOn:
THE COLE BILL is AS UN-ANIERI-
CAN AS HITLERISM.
The Cole bill puts the great American
oil industry under a DICTATOR, one
man who would be above the dictation
of his board of advisors; above the total
membership of the oil industry and even
above the courts. That is the one thing
to which all of our correspondents OBJ
iect. Several expressed the idea that
the federal government might intercede
ON behalf of the Independent operators
who are being crushed by powerful CONF
petition. We heard this in one interest
ing letter from a Texan who told how
Texas-owned refineries and other insti-
tutions were blotted out by the drastic
state control, but he added: 1.-THE Cole
bill is merely intended to put that sort
of thing in effect throughout the United
States"
The hearings in Washington were sud-
denly terminated after the governments
CASE had been presented. 1t is appar-
emily case of the government versus
the people, with "a government bureau
pretending to have conceived and written
the Cole bill to thrust down the throats
of the American people. It is presented
in the name Of conservation" We who
have lived long enough to remember the
PinchOts and the campaign of "cOnser-
Vation' for coal resources have long
since grown to realize the abuse of that
word. burglar who would steal $40
knows he faces a long prison sentence.
But the burglar who would steal mill
lions of dollars merely wraps the cloak
of CONSERVATION" around himself
and goes forth in safety TO despoiI a
nation.
The word waste has been picked up
auxiliary of the pewer of the word econ
servation." To hear these propaganda
lists, the average American would think
that the Independent operators of the
are pumping oil out onto the
ground or burning it In great cauldrons,
spending their days in dancing around
the fires in barbaric gIee. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. The
average "IittIe" operator is the last one
10 waste a barrel of crude, if he help 1t.
He NEEDS every barrel of oil he can
get. There was a time when he didn't
know how to control a big well. That
was as true of the great operators as the
little fellow" Today he can't afford
70 waste drop. He is willing to CO.
operate in field development, to avoid
water invasion. The industry is caring
or all that.
We hear about the terrific waste" of
ill i'm the MidcOntinent I'm points of Ov-
reproduction. The American public has
)een taught to raise hands of horror at
he suggestion. Yet what was the form
If waste? The 1O-cent oil was run
through the usual pipelines into refin-
,ries, made into gasoline and sold to
he public at bargain prices The gasoline
vas used to drive automobiles. Where
lid the WASTE occur? From the view
POINT of the American public, 1O-cent
gasoline is not waste. The public does
lot turn gasoline out ON the ground be-
'ause it is cheap. Some oil operators
went broke" but that is not waste"
The American oil industry is a distinct