imagine, as many seem, to do, that
the high price of gasoline is of inter
est to the motorist only. It is safe
to say that it bears hardest on peo
ple who use internal-combustion en
gines to save laboron.tiie farm. In
some parts of the country the
farmer who does not own some sort
of internal combustion engine is the
exception.
The government investigators an
nounce that they find no shortage in
the crude oil from which gasoline is
made, and that reserve stocks on
hand are the largest in the history of
the country.
Dr. Rittman of the geological sur
vey has perfected a system of treat
ing crude oil by which twice as much
gasoline is obtainable than by any
other system heretofore available to
the independent refiner. The Ritt
man process has been tried out on a
commercial scale and reported a
success. But if gasoline rises in price
regardless of the supply of crude oil
there is no reason to believe that it
will not do so in spite of the supply
of gasoline itself under the same
conditions.
The motor car, tractor and gas en
gine businesses combined are only a
little less important than the oil
business. And their development de
pends of fair prices for gasoline.
These are great business interests
whose possible activity in the mat
ter Is perhaps more likely to produce
results than that of the man who
uses his engine to run the motor car,
the churn or separator. The latter,
however, has the most votes.
Dr. Rittman himself, however, is
quoted as saying that the high price
of gasoline is purely a matter of de
mand and supply. He may be a ge
nius in gasoline making without
knowing much about gasoline prices,
but his statements are interesting.
First, says he, the Cushing Pool
oil has fallen off 100,000 barrels a
day of the best gasoline produced,
not all oils will make much gasoline
by the ordinary methods, Second,
our exports of gasoline have been
tripled. Third, the aeniand is grow
ing incredibly all the time.
Four thousands new automobiles
are added to the consumers a day.
This adds $40,000 to the domestic
demand every 24 hours.
There are 700,000 gasoline en
gines in use on farms.
There are 300,000 motor boats us
ing gasoline.
There are 6,000,000 farms on the
waiting list for engines!
The gasoline engines in use in the
United States represent 55,000,000
horsepower two and a half times'
the steam power of locomotives, sta
tionary engines and all!
Something must he done. We must
find some other fuel, we must get
more gasoline out of the oil or we
must have a different kind of motor,
or we must find the leak in the pres
ent system.
The gas engine business should
organize on the fuel question or
soon there will be no gas engine
business.
AIR ATTACK ON KENT HINTS
NEW ATTACK ON LONDON
London, Jan. 24. Renewal of Ger
man aerial attacks on London prob
ably by squadrons of German Fok
kera, "Uhlans of the air," was pre
dicted by London press today in com
menting on raids on Kent coast yes- .
terday, in which 1 person was killed
and 6 injured.
Aeronautic experts declared that
aeroplane attacks probably would
supplant Zeppelin visits-until weather
is more favorable for voyages by sky
dreadnoughts." They called upon the .
government to make better prepara
tions to defend London against giant
Fokker battle planes and assailed the
censor for forbidding publication of
exact localities attacked yesterday,
declaring that both raids were wit
nessed by "large numbers of people"
and that German 'aviators certainly
knew exacUy jyherethey Were...