PETEOLEUM. 101 



hence that there is no need for water-power development ; the blind 

 adherence to this dictum, ignoring its inevitable bearing upon trans- 

 portation, has probably caused sufficient disaster to arouse suspicion 

 of its wisdom. 



A constructive economic policy, then, will not ignore benzol and 

 alcohol, but on the contrary will promote their use. Benzol, indeed, 

 demands such consideration on its own account, for a market for this 

 product must be built up to help carry forward the important matter 

 of proper coal utilization, as explained in Part 1 of this paper. 

 Alcohol, too, is not without claim on grounds outside the petroleum 

 interest, for its fuel utilization would give an outlet to the growing 

 number of distilleries going out of service, while its possibilities as 

 to generation on farms and its peculiar adaptability to tropical con- 

 ditions form considerations of considerable weight. But for the sake 

 of the petroleum resource itself, it would not be unwise to bring some 

 relief to ^ the growing demand for gasoline, which unhelped must 

 face eventual curtailment.^ 



SUMMARY. 



The petroleum resource stands out because of its limited size and 

 decreasing availability, the growing importance of its products, and 

 the notoriously high percentage of waste involved in its exploitation. 

 According to conservative estimates, scarcely 10 per cent of the re- 

 source value is recovered under present conditions, while the unmined 

 supply now available in the United States is only about TO barrels 

 to the person. A survey of the resource and of the industrial activi- 

 ties engaged in its development indicates that the bottom cause of 

 the present wasteful employment of this invaluable resource is a 

 lack of adjustment between economic circumstances affecting produc- 

 tion, and the unique geological conditions under which petroleum 

 occurs. The geological unit or reservoir, by nature indivisible, is 

 arbitrarily subdivided into small parts for purposes of individual- 

 istic production. This discordance leads to a train of wastes that con- 

 sume the bulk of the resource. Its cause may be removed by 

 reshaping the method of production so as to fit with the occurrence 

 of the resource, and the means for this accomplishment will come 

 through development and application of a constructive economic 

 policy. 



The betterment of the situation, in the last analysis, depends upon 

 the pressure of public opinion. The whole matter now rests upon 



1 It may not be beyond the interest of the automotive industry to bend its energies 

 toward providing a situation where benzol and alcohol will come into action. Such 

 effort, if undertaken, should merit popular support because of its constructive tendency ; 

 and in particular will it stand in need of sympathetic governmental help when it ap- 

 proaches the legal aspects of alcohol exemptions. 

 79968°— 19— Bull. 102, vol. 1 8 



