The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1944-05-12
Sincerely yours,
JOHN F. MAAS.
CRUDE OIL-LIFE BLOOD TO THE
WINNING OF THE WAR

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There is only one element that is
more important to winning this wal
than crude oil This element is lead
ership = first in executive capacity
second in legislative, third in industry
fourth in labor and fifth in agricul
ture. Without the proper leadership
the war will be lost-if not in the ac-
tual scene of combat-it will be lost
at the peace table in the post wal
period, so it is very evident that the
two most vital things to win this war
are leadership and crude oil as there
is no substitute for the latter and
everything will stop without an ade-
quate production of this vital war
material = petroleum; transportation
of all kinds - rails, ships, air and
motor transport, besides all factories
and industry and in fact agriculture
would slow down to the dark ages
without fabrication.
1t is almost impossible to realize
how the administration can look with
such little concern upon the develop
ment of adequate reserves of this
vitality important material. There
would have been no cause for ration
ing Except for very short tlme)
and with adequate reserve there would
foreign lands and spending American
dollars, either taxpayers or privately
owned, to get an adequate reserve of
this vital material
To win this war it was necessary
that all commodities rise in proper
ton to their needs and Importance to
the war effort. Crude oil is the one
item that is being held at 500 of
parity while practically all other COM
modities of any necessity have risen
to over 1000. This shortsightedness
on the part of the administration has
opened the door for the major cor
porations to spread propaganda of an
enormous shortage of oil reserve and
that they should not only be allowed
to go into foreign countries to produce
subsidized with taxpayers money to
help overcome this deficiency. When
a commodity stands at or below the
cost of production it is impossible to
build up surplus or reserve and
crude oil is a commodity which is
wholly consumed in use and there is
no scrap or salvage value as in all
metals, paper, machines and like
tens. Therefore, it is necessary to
Keep more than an adequate reserve !
ahead
The one thing most necessary to de-
eat Hitler and TOTO is to deprive
hem of their oil reserves and to de-
troy their synthetic oil plants. Then
operations will cease and everything
will come to a standstill and the war
will be won.
There is no desperate need to raise
he price of refined produced although
he relative increase in price would
e an infinitesimally small burden
pom the average taxpayer. Oil re-
erves must be built up and we must
tart now as they will be just as i'm
ortant in the post war period as they
re at the present time. This is the
ay of the internal combustion engine
nd nothing should stop the United
tates from building up an immense
il reserve in our own country instead
trying to raise the standard of
wing in foreign lands by investing
merican dollars to extract this yalu-
BILE material. We have in this coun- {
y ample reserves to last for many
enerations in undeveloped oil lands,
il shales and coal and at the present
me the crude oil price is by far. the
west price based commodity of any
ar necessity. There is more power (
raped up in a gallon of gasoline Z
I'D to the general public for from 5
to 25 cents gallon, and this gal /
n represents more energy and serv- {
e than any known article in our
set-up. TX
We boys in Montana have been in
buyers market for the last Is years
Id have been attempting to produce
ude oil very near the cost of pro-
lction as the only chance of making
profit was the gamble of finding a