18 CONSERVATION THROUGH ENGINEERING. 



Substitute the internal-combustion engine for the steam boiler and 

 we multiply by three or three and one-half the supply of fuel oil in 

 the United States. Instead of our fuel-oil supply being, let us say, 

 200,000,000 barrels, it would at once rise to 600,000,000 barrels or 

 700,000,000. I recognize that this is an impractical and unrealizable 

 hope as applied to things as they are, but there is no reason why this 

 should not be a very definite policy as to things that are to be. 



This Government might itself well undertake to develop an engine 

 of this type for use on its ships, tractors, and trucks. We simply can 

 not afford to preach economy in oil when we do not promote by 

 every means the use of the internal-combustion engine for its con- 

 sumption. No other one thing that can be done by the Government, 

 our industries, or the people will save as much oil from being wasted 

 and thereby multiply the real production of the United States. If 

 such engines are delicate of handling and need specially trained en- 

 gineers, which appears to be the fact, there should be little difficulty 

 experienced in training men for such work. A nation that could 

 educate 10,000 automobile mechanics in 60 days might indeed de- 

 velop 1,000 Diesel engineers in a year. The matter is of too great 

 moment for delay. It touches the interest of everyone. We are in 

 the petroleum age, and how long it will last depends upon our own 

 foresight, inventiveness, and wisdom. 



WANTED A FOREIGN SUPPLY. 



Already we are importers of petroleum. We are to be larger im- 

 porters year by year if we continue and we will to invent and 

 build machines which will rely upon oil or its derivatives as fuel. 

 Our business methods have been and doubtless will continue to be 

 developed along lines that make a continuing oil supply a necessity. 

 Some of that oil must come from abroad, as nearly 40,000,000 barrels 

 did last year, and for that we must compete with the world. For 

 while we are the discoverers of oil and of the methods of securing it 

 and refining it, piping it, and using it, our pioneering is but a service 

 unto the world. 



This situation calls for a policy prompt, determined, and looking 

 many years ahead. For the American Navy and the American 

 merchant marine and American trade abroad must depend to some 

 extent upon our being able to secure, not merely for to-day but for 

 to-morrow as well, an equal opportunity with other nations to gain 

 a petroleum supply from the fields of the world. We are now in the 

 world and of it in every possible sense, otherwise our Navy and our 

 merchant fleet would have no excuse. No one needs to justify 

 them they are the expression of an ambition that carries no danger 

 to any people. For their support we can ask no preference, but in 

 their maintenance we can insist that they shall not be discriminated 

 against. 



