THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 47 



duction has been dependent on new discoveries, and 

 the areas in which new discoveries can be made are 

 growing fewer and fewer year by year. The say- 

 ing that haste makes waste is nowhere more evident 

 than in present practices in the production of liquid 

 and gaseous fuels. The greed for gain or protection 

 therefrom compels each landowner or lessee not only 

 to obtain from the acreage he controls the oil or gas 

 found beneath its surface but to draw so far as prac- 

 ticable from that under his neighbor's land before it 

 can be reduced to possession by another. Not only 

 does this lead to wasteful practices in drilling and 

 production, but the balance between available sup- 

 ply and market demand is so evenly drawn that 

 slight overproduction results in economic confusion 

 and waste. From November, 1926, to March, 1927, 

 increase in production of some 200,000 barrels of oil 

 per day in Oklahoma resulted in a decrease of more 

 than $400,000 in the value of oil production in that 

 state and in similar loss to producers throughout 

 the country. Nor is the producer's loss reflected in 

 a gain to the consumer. Some slight temporary 

 gain to the consumer there has been, but in the long 

 run his loss will exceed that of the producer. A 

 measure of regulation by the industry itself, or, fail- 

 ing in that, legislation may be expected in the rea- 

 sonably near future. 



"About six per cent of the oil produced in the 

 United States is under lease by the Government of 

 lands of the public domain or of its wards, the In- 



