PETROLEUM. 93 



The elimination of excessive competition in oil production, that 

 is to say, of competition within the geological unit or reservoir, will 

 go far toward placing petroleum on the same footing with other 

 mineral products. It will lessen the gambling aspect of oil-field 

 exploration by bringing a greater measure of engineering practice to 

 bear on the search for oil.^ It will strike to the roots of wasteful 

 production and overproduction by enabling the producer to gain 

 greater profit in holding the oil underground until needed and then 

 producing it according to the best current technique than by rushing 

 headlong into hasty production as is necessary under present cir- 

 cumstances. It will create conditions of supply that will cater indiffer- 

 ently to inferior uses, to the sustained benefit of all activities actually 

 dependent upon the distinctive character of petroleum products. In 

 a word, this simple expedient will prevent the migratory character 

 of petroleum from working at severe cross-purposes, as it now does, 

 with the best interests of the petroleum industry and the public. 



Tapering use of oil as steam-raising fuel. — While better rounded 

 integration in the production of petroleum will find physical wastes 

 unprofitable and lose interest in supplying low-use demands, a con- 

 structive economic policy will also clear the path of certain obstacles 

 now retarding an efficient utilization of petroleum. These obstacles 

 are chiefly two : The large amount of fuel oil thrown on the market 

 as a necessary product of refining, which must find an outlet ; and the 

 industrial dependency upon oil-developed steam power, strongly 

 marked in certain parts of the country lacking in coal. A wise policy 

 will turn the use of fuel oil into higher channels and narrow the 

 necessity for employing the oil-fired steam engine. 



In respect to fuel oil, we have already seen that " cracking " dis- 

 tillation can turn it in part into gasoline, while without change fuel 

 oil may be used efficiently in the Diesel type of engine. Here are the 

 means, then, for escaping the steam-boiler use of oil. " Cracking " 

 may be expected to come into practice as needed, but its progress 

 would be facilitated by extended research on a commercial scale in 

 keeping with the true importance of this matter.^ The Diesel engine 

 has been scarcely used in the United States; its introduction on a 

 broad scale may be facilitated by a campaign of educational infor- 

 mation, by the encouragement of manufacturing plants, and par- 

 ticularly by favorable consideration for adoption in connection with 

 the Navy and merchant marine of this country.^ 



lA substantial gain from this will He in the field of investments in respect to lower- 

 ing the losses now so abundant in connection with fake and unsubstantial oil companies. 



2 Such work is being done by the Bureau of Mines, but with financial support scarcely 

 In keeping with the potential importance of the experiments. 



3 The British ministry of reconstruction has a provisional committee for the internal- 

 combustion engine industry which, presumably, will press this matter for Great Britain. 



