Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-02-17 | Page 34 | U. S. Control of Oil Industry is Here

U. S. CONTROL OF OIL INDUSTRYIS HERE Price Regulation and Shipping Ship-ping Restrictions Likely to Follow Soon. While there has been uo startling change in the oil situation since the United States government assumed control con-trol of the oil industry and appointed Mark L. Requa as 'controller,' there has been a great deal of speculation as to .just what Mr. Eequa would do -when lie completes his investigation of the entire petroleum situation, at which task he has been busily engaged-since liis appointment, January 10. W. F. Culmer. manager of the Cul-mers Cul-mers company, was loath to volunteer an opinion of what the jjovernment may or may not do, but viewed the situation sit-uation optimistically and gave the impression im-pression that, he was not losing any sleep over the matter. When asked the direct question, Will the price of oil be affected!'' Mr. Culmer parried the question with the auswer: ''The oil industry is now in the hands of the fuel administration. They regulated price and distribution of coal, and will in all human probability- do so with petroleum products if it ;s deemed necessary for the best interests in-terests of the country." Mr. Culmer also said: "There is less to be feared by the ultimate consumer con-sumer of oils such as are used in automobiles, auto-mobiles, gas engines, etc., from violent price fluctuations, than there is from .inability of refiners to secure tank cars jn which to make shipments. "Already Jwo western refineries have closed down because they could secure no -cars, according to a recent i-sue of the Petroleum News, and should the fuel administration suddenly sudden-ly issue orders for curtailment of shipments ship-ments to the west no one can answer lor what might follow to local oil dealers. "Wo arc fortunate in having placed unusually large orders last fail for the various Culco Oils have received some shipments and have assurances of ir.any more to come, but on top of that our orders for spring delivery alreadv exceed by nearly two to one our lat year's .shipments, and if our supply is shut off in the near future we will certainly cer-tainly have trouble filling late orders. "While I earnestly advise both small i consumers and dealers to place orders for oils they expect to use this summer, without a day's unnecessary delay, I am equally earnest in condemning hoarding of oils, for that may precipitate precipi-tate the very shortage we are all working work-ing hard to avoid. 'Figure out the probable amount of oil necessary to answer your purpose under normal conditions give the order or-der to the local dealer, that he may in turn prepare himself by ordering from his wholesaler or jobber, and in this way everyone cau undoubtedly be taken care of.