PETROLEUM, 
59 
are incontestable — the question arises as to what may be done with 
the situation. Four lines of action, in the way of national policy, 
present themselves for consideration. 
THE LAISSEZ-FAIRE POLICY. 
Industrial development in this country has been intrusted to the 
automatic control exerted by natural law — the law of supply and 
demand — working under free competition. Such interference with 
the natural course of industrial development as national policy has 
dictated has been in the direction of maintaining conditions of free 
competition against an integrative or monopolistic tendency. This 
policy of leaving industrial growth to the stimulus and retardation 
of attendant circumstances may be termed a policy of noninterference 
or laissez-faire. Such a policy apparently developed on the assump- 
Pig. 12. — Diagram showing the typical underground occurrence of oil, gas., and 
WATER, AND THE CUSTOMARY DISCORDANT RELATIONS BETWEEN PROPERTY LINES AND 
GEOLOGIC OCCURRENCE. THE MIGRATORY CHARACTER OF OIL RENDERS THIS TYPE OF 
DEVELOPMENT UNSOUND AS LEADING TO A RACING AND WASTEFUL EXTRACTION OF THE OIL. 
This diagram expresses the underground relations of the surface conditions 
DEPICTED BY FIG. 11. DATA FROM CARL H. BEAL, GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE IN CUSHING 
Oil and Gas Field, Oklahoma, Bulletin 658, U. S. Geological Survey, 1917, figure 
3 AND PLATE 4. 
tion that all industrial activities react alike and favorably to this 
treatment. If, however, at any later time it becomes clearly apparent 
that in a given field matters are working out clisadvantageously under 
a sweeping- rule policy, it is a fit subject for inquiry whether a point 
of departure is not there afforded and justified in respect to a change 
in plan, so as to bring the activity into a more profitable and con- 
genial atmosphere. It would appear that, so far as petroleum is 
concerned, a continuation of the policy of laissez-faire will perpetu- 
ate the circumstances which are forcing a premature exhaustion of 
a limited and vital resource. 
59319 — 18- — Bull. 102, pt. 0-™™"5 
