OCR Text |
Show Real Progress It is probable that a very small part of the American public has an adequate realization of the oil industry's achievements since 1913. In the former year there were only 1,258,000 motor cars on American Amer-ican roads. Now there are 25 million mil-lion or more. From a kerosene industry, in-dustry, oil became a gasoline industry in-dustry almost overnight. To meet j the requirements of a nation sua- i denly motorized it had to make an ' epochal change and gigantic progress prog-ress in the space of a very few-years, few-years, j .No ether industry has even been called uppn to make so large an expenditure of capital and so great an expansion in equipment in so 1 short a period. It is estimated that in 1909 the industry's total in- i vestment was less than one billion dollars. By 1924 it had increased to $8,000,000,000. At present the total exceeds $12,000,000,000. During this time of growth the industry was steadily improving the quality of its products and at the same time lowering or stabilizing their cost, in the face of rising price levels for labor and supplies. Oil is one of the few commodities which cost less today (exclusive of tax) than in 1913. We pay less for our gasoline than the people of any other of the- world's leading nations. Now the oil industry is engaged in fighting a battle which was largely larg-ely the result of its amazing growth the battle against waste and overproduction ov-erproduction of our limited pretol-eum pretol-eum resources. Victory, w:hlch is now held certain, will mark one more great achievement of an in-Sir.try in-Sir.try vital to modern life. |