Evening star., 1944-02-13
By James d. White.


Today third of all gasoline pro-
duced east of the Rocky Mountains
goes to the armed forces. This may
rise to 40 per cent before the war
ends, the Office of War Information
says.
No Relief During War.
West of the Rockies, more than
40 per cent goes to war against
Japan and this is expected to rise
above so per cent as that war moves
closer to the tormenters of Bataan
4 Washington officials hold out no
hope for increases in civilian supply
before the war ends.
Here are the reasons, as depicted
by the Owl, the Petroleum Admin
istration for War, the Office of De-
Tense Transportation and Office of
Rubber Director:
From crude oil. besides gasoline,
come butadiene for synthetic rub
Der, toluene for TINT, lubricants,
fuel oils and special gasolines for
our fighting forces.
We are using our 2O-billion barrel
known reserve of crude oil faster
than it is being replenished by new
discoveries-we use a billion and a
half barrels yearly.
Our estimated production of all
gasolines is now 1,S00,O0O barrels per
day-less than we produced in 194l
because of other demands.
Now, out of that 100000 barrels
of gasoline produced daily, some
thing like 100000 barrels go for
military use, leaving 100000 barrels
for daily civilian use.
All Civilian Uses.
But this means for all civilian
uses-not just private automobiles.
Civilian uses include:
l. Basic transportation - buses,
trucks, taXis.
2. Food production-tractors, COM
bines, other farm machinery.
3. Uses directly related to the war
effort-sawmills, roadbuilding, air
fields, mining machinery.
4. Private transportation for war
workers. In the industrial East, 80
per cent of all war workers depend
on their own automobiles, says OWL
These needs are considered more
important than ever before
Civilian users consumed 100000
gallons in 1941, which leaves a diff
ference of 100000 gallons which
some one, somewhere, must do with
out. That half-million gallonage
comes out of the tank of the non-
essential driver.
War drinks gasoline in ever bigger
gulps.
A thousand 4-motored bombers
on 6-hour raid burn l,850,00O gall
Ions of l00-octane gasoline.
Air operations over Europe grow
steadily, and ever larger quantities
of gasoline must be shipped to Eng
land and other bases to power the
invasion.
Heavy Demand by Tanks.
The quantities of fuel oil and gas
oline consumed in the Marshall
Islands operations, involving the
largest naval assault in history,
measure the growth of such needs
in the Pacific
Besides l00-octane gasoline to de-
liver extra energy to planes, the
Army employs-in thousands of
ways-an all-purpose 80-octane gas
oline for trucks, jeeps, tanks, self
propelled artillery and other weapons
and machines. A tank division soaks
up $4,000 gallons when it moves 100
miles.
(The octane or antiknock rating
for civilian gasoline is Is at the
maximum)
Such growing military require
ments will be behind reductions in
automobile gasoline rations if and
when they come, but there also may
be other factors-chief1y transporta-
tionas exemplified now in the East.
Military demands bite not only
into gasoline itself but into the
means of moving what is left to the
home front.
Heavy domestic military move
ments have congested railway traffic
and tank car delivery-which
meanwhile has been affected by
manpower shortages made worse by
epidemics of influenza.
Defective pipe delayed for two
months the opening of the Little
Big Inch pipeline from Beaumont,
Tex, to Norris City, Ill.
Tank trucks, used for short hauls,
are breaking down, and their hard
to-replace heavy-duty tires are wear
ing out. Some 20 per cent of the
tank trucks in the Midwestern States
are idle for various reasons.
Owl says rationing is working but
could work better.
Half of all drivers in cities aside
from war workers. still ride alone,
it estimates-there isn't enough car
pooling.
The black market persists. It
takes the form of stolen or counter
felt coupons and excess coupons dis
posed of to third parties.
There would be no black market
in gasoline. says Owl, If:
/. Consumers buy no gasoline ex-
cept for coupons-their own coupons.
2. Dealers sell it only for coupons.
3. Consumers indorse their cou-
pons with their license numbers, and
dealers accept only coupons which
have been so indorsed
Coupons shortly will bear serial
numbers also, to make black market
operations easier to trace.
distributed by Associated Press)