PETROLEUM. 
33 
owning public, farmers, business activities using motor trucks, 
and the automotive industry with its ramifications — or expressed in 
another way, transportation, food production, and a large branch of 
manufacturing — all have a vital concern in this matter. Under a 
waning petroleum supply, these various activities would suffer a 
progressive narrowing in scope which would be the antithesis of the 
continued progress that their importance urges . 1 
In respect to kerosene, we have previously observed that this 
illuminant has brought a cheap light to millions of people the world 
over . 2 This commonplace substance has been America’s greatest gift 
to the uncultured peoples of the globe. With the latter-day develop- 
ment of city lighting, however, the kerosene lamp has been displaced 
in civic centers, but it still remains the solace of the evening hour 
among the country folk of this country and the natives of nearly 
every foreign region. A failing supply would return much of the 
world to the gloom of the flickering candle, a setback that it is the 
altruistic duty of this country to circumvent, if consistently possible. 
Over half of the petroleum currently produced is used as fuel for 
steam raising, this portion including the crude petroleum employed 
for fuel purposes and the fuel oil proper turned out by petroleum 
refineries. The whole southwestern portion of the United States is 
wholly dependent upon fuel oil; Pacific coast shipping and naval 
activities on both oceans draw much of their energy from this sub< 
stance ; and with the progress of war activities a growing number of 
industrial operations of the eastern half of the country are employ- 
ing this convenient fuel. While the application of fuel oil to 
steam raising is an economic perversion, for which the penalty is se- 
vere, the fact remains that the United States is, for the time being 
at least, hopelessly entangled in the necessity of prolonging much of 
this wasteful practice, an unduly forced reduction of which would 
be fraught with disastrous consequences, particularly for the South- 
west. The use of fuel oil, however, has grown so extensively during 
the past year that an overburden ncnv rests upon it which will bring 
an inevitable train of industrial disasters in the coming months, as 
the supply is wholly inadequate to sustain even the current demand. 
Unfortunately, the swing away from coal in favor of fuel oil is 
still continuing. 
As regards lubricating oils, we are confronted with the fact that 
the whole mechanical equipment of modern civilization is dependent 
1 The possibilities of oil-energized automotive agencies are so great and vital that 
before long it will be looked upon as an inconceivable folly that oil should ever have 
been used for steam raising, the most glaring economic perversion that this country 
has ever been guilty of. 
2 Part of the kerosene produced is also used in stoves for heating and cooking, part is 
now used in the engines of heavy trucks, and still another part in process of manu 
facture is “ cracked ” into gasoline. 
