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Show CLIFF MEMMOTT, Editor This Is "Oil Progress Week" ... Any time need or notion requires it, we can roll up to a service station and get our tank filled with gasoline; or we can pick up a telephone, and order a tank of fuel oil for the burner in the basement; or we can reach out in almost any direction for any kind of oil product, and get it without difficulty or delay. Keeping shelves supplied with consumer goods is a standard business practice. Competition makes it so, for we all know that if one store, shop or service station doesn't have what we want, or the price isn't right, we can always .go to the next, and be choosy in what we buy. Keeping those shelves filled, however, can be a trying and expensive problem, for it means that substantial funds ' must be tied up constantly, not only in inventories but also in extensive supply lines. Since this is Oil Progress Week, it brings to mind a statement made recently by Frank M. Porter, president of the American Petroleum Institute. This oil industry executive execu-tive pointed out that the value of crude oil and four major products alone tied up continuously in pipe lines, ship bottoms, bot-toms, tank cars, and stf on is in excess of one billion dollars. dol-lars. This is an investment which not only must be kept "on the shelf" constantly, but must be enlarged as newly created facilities require it. Mr. Porter noted that 65 per cent of the petroleum industry's crude oil inventories, 40 per cent of its light products and 42 per cent of its residual fuel oil are unavailable unavail-able for sale continuously, because of this "shelf" factor. This is only part of the story, for over and above those basic requirements the industry must have available the substantial inventories for "over the counter" sales. The investment is huge, but in the long run it is only one of the many ways in which industry and competition combine to serve us as consumers and serve us well. v E v Casually Observing . . . "OIL PROGRES WEEK" Oil dealers locally have cooperated co-operated in the observance of "Oil Progress Week." Many of the companies have purchased space in the Roosevelt Standard to present a message to their patrons on this occasion. Not only do they tell the story of oil, but they express appreciation for the support of the consumer of one of the nation's most basic products. PENNEY COMPANY WELCOMES NEW MANAGER -Oat. 1 saw a change effected in the management of the J. C. Penney Co., as Ezra J. Nixon announced his retirement, retire-ment, and Merlin Hays from Price became the new manager. man-ager. In the four years I have been editor and publisher of the Roosevelt Standard, it has been my pleasure to work very closely with Mr. Nixton, who has been very cooperative and agreeable in our business relationships. We all join in wishing him well in his retirement and other activities he Will engage in. . . We also extend a hand of welcome and fellowship to Mr. Hays and his family who have joined our community, and hope their stay with us will be one of pleasure and success. v E v |