Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1920 — WHAT OIL MEANS TO U. S. [ARTICLE]

WHAT OIL MEANS TO U. S.

Lubricant Is Center of a Romance That Equals the Tale of Steel— Helped Win War. It is 60 years since the first oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania, thus inaugurating the era of oil, the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times observes. The discovery was at once recognized as possessing great value, but there could have been slight appreciation of the mammoth proportions to which the Industry was destined to grow. Hailed as an llluminant supplanting candles and whale oil, the business has widened beyond any possible dreams of those who were active in the early days of oil. The center of the industry has long since departed from the place of its origin. The Southwest and the Pacific coast, almost an unknown land in the Infancy of the business, now produce thousands of barrels to the original oil region’s one. Oil is used as an llluminant on millions of farms and In isolated places all over the world, hut that Is no longer the chief product of crude. Gasoline, at first a troublesome by-product. Is now the main result sought. The millions of motor-driven vehicles that have come into existence in the past score of years would not have been possible had we not had this desirable product to provide an explosive fuel to drive them. Vast quantities of the crude product are used to drive locomotives and ships. The war might not have been won had not the allies had access to the fields of Mexico and the United States. And not only as fuel does the greasy product enter into the

‘A world’s commerce, but as a lubricant it lessens the friction of bearings, from the sewing machine to steamships. The by-products even enter the realms of medicine, and while the limit would seem to be reached In utilizing the waste from the refineries it is possible that further subdivisions may yet increase the number. The story of oil is a romance that equals the tale of steel, yet it Is an Infant in point of time compared the metal that has brought such wealth to Pennsylvania.