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Show OIL LAND CONTROVERSY. There is a big fight on in Washington over the California oil lands and Secretary Secre-tary of the Xavy Daniels has appealed to President Wilson to prevent the Phelan bill from becoming a law. As Secretary Lane of the interior department depart-ment is one of the sponsors for the measure mea-sure the struggle bids fair to become quite interesting before it is finally settled. The claim is made by Secretary Secre-tary Daniels that if squatters upon these lauds, which were withdrawn from entry by President Taft, are allowed to obtain ob-tain patent, the navy will be without a i reserve supply of oil and at the mercy of the corporations. It is further claimed that it will be worse than useless use-less to build any more oil-burning vessels and that sooner or later those now in service will have to be remodeled in order or-der that coal may be used as fuel. Both Senator Phelan and Secretary Lane make light of the note of alarm sounded by Secretary Daniels and have told the president that none of the predictions pre-dictions made by the head of the navy department will come true if the measure mea-sure is passed. Naturally the chief executive ex-ecutive is in somewhat of a quandary and will be compelled to look into the matter very closely before taking a stand one way or the other. It is not to be expected, therefore, that there will bo undue haste in putting the law upon the statute books, even though Senator Phelan and Secretary Lane finally prevail. pre-vail. There is no urgency in the matter unless upon the part of the squatters, who took their chances when they attempted at-tempted to gain possession of lands which the government had reserved. There has been much talk of late regarding re-garding the future oil supply of the world. A noted British chemist is of the opinion that posterity will be compelled to use alcohol as fuel. It is set forth in other quarters that the world'ssupply of gasoline is limited and unrenewable and, therefore, with the increased use of the automobile and other forms of the gasoline engine, the price must rise. Alcohol Al-cohol will probablv be the most available avail-able substitute. This subject is of particular parti-cular interest at this time in the western west-ern provinces of Canada owing to the ; adoption of prohibition. A large number num-ber of extensive, breweries and distilling distil-ling plants in the Dominion will become idle unless another channel of trade is opened vup. It is Buggested by an analytical analyti-cal chemist that these plants be equipped for the manufacture of commercial alcohol. al-cohol. Perhaps it is too soon to make extensive exten-sive preparations for the use of alcohol as fuel, but if the price of gasoline is as high after the close of the European war as it is at the present time aOcohol may come into more general use. If the California reserves were to be opened up of course there would be more oil and more gasoline upon the market and prices would quite naturally be affected. This is one argument for the Phelan bill. Another is the high standing of .both Senator Phelan and Secretary Lane. A third argument may be found in the fact that Secretary Daniels has not always been accurate in his statements Regarding Regard-ing the needs of the navy and that his figures as well as his assertions will bear the closet scrutiny. We beiievc a majority ma-jority of western men conversant with the situation favor allowing the Cali- fVrnin nil lands' onin ct to via ten t. which I should have some weight with the president. presi-dent. However, no one will object to an exhaustive inquiry before the question is decided. |