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 equivalent of a billion feet of gas is more than 160,000 barrels 

 of petroleum, and of practically the same chemical composition as 

 benzine or gasoline) 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 yet be- 

 cause 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 additional 

 expenditures. 



In justice to the great oil-producing corporations, it must be ac- 

 knowledged that they have not permitted much waste of petroleum 

 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 business economy and management. The great mistake of 

 the oil-producing interests has been in not properly apprehending the 

 enormous fuel value of the natural gas they were destroying, and in 

 not demanding legislation for its protection instead of successfully 

 throttling and preventing it in every state of the Union except one 

 Indiana. When the people of that great state awoke to the fact that 

 their richest mineral 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 effectually 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 can not take the oil from the ground where na- 

 ture has safely stored it, until you provide a method of utilizing the 

 accompanying gas, or volatile oil as well," and it also says to both the 

 producer and consumer of natural gas, that it is against "public 

 policy to waste this valuable fuel, and that it will not be permitted 

 to either party." This Indiana statute for the conservation of petro- 

 leum and natural gas should be enacted into law in every state where 

 this precious fuel exists; and why has it not been done? 



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