1908 



THE GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE 



309 



duced this fuel at the rate of 70 million 

 cubic feet daily, the equivalent in heating 

 value of 70,000 bushels of coal, or 

 nearly 12,000 barrels of oil. In my humble 

 opinion the original amount of this volatile 

 fuel in the United States, permeating as it 

 does every undisturbed geologic formation 

 from the oldest to the most recent, rivaled 

 or even exceeded in heating value, all of 

 our wondrous stores of coal. 



Suppose that it were possible for some 

 Nero, inspired by a mania of incendiarism, 

 to apply a consuming torch to every bed of 

 coal that crops to the surface from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, and that the entire 

 coal supply of the Union was threatened 

 with destruction within a very few years, 

 what do you think would happen ? Would 

 our State Legislatures sit undisturbed pano- 

 plied by such a carnival of fire? Would 

 the Governors of 30 States remain silent 

 while the demon of flame was ravaging the 

 coal resources of the Republic? Certainly 

 not ; there would be a united effort by the 

 Governors and Legislatures of all the States 

 in the Union to stay the progress of such p 

 direful conflagration ; even the sacred Con- 

 stitutional barriers wisely erected between 

 State and Federal authority would melt 

 away in the presence of such an awful 

 calamity, and the mighty arm of the Na- 

 tion would be invoked to help end the com- 

 mon peril to every interest. And yet this 

 imaginary case is an actual one with 

 the best and purest fuel of the coun- 

 try, equal probably in quantity and value 

 for heat, light and power to all of our coal 

 resources. This blazing zone of destruc- 

 tion extends in a broad band from the 

 Lakes to the Gulf, and westward to the Pa- 

 cific, embracing in its flaming pathway the 

 most precious fuel possessions of a conti- 

 nent. No one can even approximate the 

 extent of this waste. From personal knowl- 

 edge of conditions which exist in every oil 

 and gas field, I am sure the quantity will 

 amount to not less than one billion cubic 

 feet daily, and it may be much more. The 

 heating value of a billion cubic feet of nat- 

 ural gas is roughly equivalent to that of 

 one million bushels of coal. What an ap- 

 palling record to transmit to posterity! 



From one well in eastern Kentucky there 

 poured a stream of gas for a period of 20 

 years v/ithout any attempt to shut it in or 

 utilize it, the output of which, it has been 

 figured, was worth at current prices more 

 than three rnillion dollars. Practically the 

 same conditions characterized the first 25 

 years of Pennsylvania's oil and gas history, 

 and the quantity of wasted gas from thou- 

 sands of oil and gas wells in western Penn- 

 sylvania is beyond computation. In my 

 own state of West Virginia, only eight 

 years ago, not less than 500 million cubic 

 feet of this precious gas was daily escaping 

 into the air from two counties alone, prac- 

 tically all of which was easily preventable, 

 by a moderate expenditure for additional 

 casing. When it is remembered that one 

 thousand cubic feet of natural gas weighs 



48 pounds, and that 6,000 cubic feet of it 

 would yield a 42-gallon barrel of oil when 

 condensed, so that a well flowing 6,000,000 

 feet of gas is pouring into the air daily the 

 equivalent of 1,000 barrels of oil, what 

 would our petroleum kings think, if they 

 could see this river of oil (for the equiva- 

 lent of a billion feet of gas is more than 

 160,000 barrels of petroleum, and of prac- 

 tically the same chemical composition as 

 benzine, or gasolene) rushing unhindered 

 to the sea? Would they not spend millions 

 to check such a frightful waste of this 

 golden fluid? And would they not be the 

 first to appeal to the national government 

 for aid in ending such great destruction of 

 property? And j'et because natural gas is 

 invisible, and its waste is not so apparent 

 to the eye as a stream of oil, or a burning 

 coal mine, the agents of these oil magnates 

 have not only permitted this destruction of 

 the nation's fuel resources to continue, but 

 they have prevented by every means in their 

 power the enactment of any legislation to 

 stop this frightful loss of the best and 

 purest fuel that nature has given to man. 



There can be no doubt that for every 

 barrel of oil taken from the earth there 

 have been wasted more than ten times its 

 equivalent in either heating power, or 

 weight even, of this the best of all the fuels, 

 and also that much more than half of this 

 frightful waste could have been avoided by 

 proper care in oil production and slight ad- 

 ditional expenditures. 



In justice to the great oil-producing cor- 

 porations, it must be acknowledged that 

 they have not permitted much waste of pe- 

 troleum except what has been sprayed into 

 the air by their awful waste of gas, and 

 also that their handling of petroleum has 

 been from the beginning a model of busi- 

 ness economy and management. The great 

 mistake of the oil producing interests has 

 been in not properly apprehending the enor- 

 mous fuel value of the natural gas they 

 were destroying, and in not demanding leg- 

 islation for its protection instead of suc- 

 cessfully throttling and preventing it in 

 every state of the Union except one — In- 

 diana. When the people of that great state 

 awoke to the fact that their richest min- 

 eral possession was being rapidly wasted, 

 they rose to the occasion, and although it 

 was largely a case of "locking the stable 

 door after the horse had been stolen," they 

 efifectually prevented any further useless 

 waste of natural gas. This Indiana statute 

 which has been declared constitutional by 

 our highest courts, says in effect to the oil 

 producers — "You cannot take the oil from 

 the ground where nature has safely stored 

 it, until you provide a method of utilizing 

 the accompanying gas, or volatile oil as 

 well," and it also says to bofh the producer 

 and consumer of natural gas, that it is 

 against "public policy to waste this val- 

 uable fuel and that it will not be permitted 

 to either partj'." This Indiana statue for 

 the conservation of petroleum and natural 

 gas should be enacted into law in every 



