Newspaper Page Text
4
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEEY JOURNAL
ATLAKTA, GA., 6 WORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter ot
the Second Class.
JAMES B. GRAY, '
President and Editor.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
Twelve months 75*
Six » months 10c
Three months 2Go
The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for
early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into our office. It has a/Jtafl
of distingruis ied contributors, with strong department*
of special value to the home and the farm.
Agents warted tit every postoffice. Liberal 6om-
mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRXd-
LEY. Circulation Manager.
The only traveling representatives we have are
J. A. Bryan, R. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim
brough and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only
for money paid to the above named traveling repre
sentatives.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
The label used for addressing ymlr paper
shows the tim^ your subscription expires. By
renewing at least two weeks before the date on
this label; you Insure regular service.
In ordering paper changed, be sure to^mention
your old, as well as your new address. If on a
route please give the route number.
We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with
back numbers. Remittances should be sent by
postal order or registered mail.
Address all orders and notices for this de
partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL,
Atlanta, 6a.
The Vital Need of
The United States Army.
"The vital need of the army of the United States
is to have the people of the United States know
more about it and care more about it.”
Thus does Secretary of War Garrison, in a recent
number of’Harper's Weekly, sum up an issue in which
•thoughtful citizens are now particularly interested.
His point is well taken. Public ignorance or indiffer
ence is responsible for most public ills. The impell
ing and guiding power behind L ongress rises directly
from the rank and file of the people; indeed, popular
interest and support are essential to every sphere of
government, if a nation’s life is to he wholesome, effi
cient and secure. Congressmen cannot be expected
to recognize the needs of the army unless their con
stituents recognize those needs; and. so, it is impor
tant above all else, as Secretary Garrison declares,
that the average American citizen should know more
about the army and care more about it.
His counsel in this regard is all the more trust
worthy for the reason that he is pre-eminently a man
of peace, with no tingt of the alarmist and no sym
pathy for the professional warseeker. “Militarism,”
says he, “with all its great financial and other bur
dens, is the last thing that I should advocate or that
anyone connected with the war establishment advo
cates.” Yet, he is none the less mindful of the wis
dom, the absolute necessity of maintaining an army
sufficient to uphold our national policies and protect
o_r national interests in any contingency that might
arise; for, as he well says, “It takes two parties to
keep the peace and, at best, any nation can control
only one party, namely, itself.”
The Secretary of War does not advocate a large
standing army but he urges earnestly and soberly the
maintenance of an efficient army and the development
of a reserve force which could be drawn upon in the
hour of need. Only thus, he emphasises, can our
present small army "effectively act as a school of
military instructior for the nation and as a nucleus
for the expansion that will be necessary in time of
war.” The fact is cur one practical assurance against
the cost and the burdens of a great army are the
proper support and perfection of the present army,
together with an adequate reserve force and an ade
quate navy. The country must either be intelligently
prepared for emergencies that may arise or pay the
staggering hills which lack of timely preparation al
ways entails.
The remoteness of the United States from the tu
multuous Old World, where clashing interests and
ambitions are a continual menace to peace, have
proved distinctly a blessing. We have no neighbor
whose power or policy requires us to maintain a big
army in tranquil times. But, as Secretary Garrison
remarks, the expanse of sea that separates us from
othei great nations are no longer the safeguard they
once were.
“The oceans furnish fine highways for the
transportation of troops and supplies, and im
provements in shipping have made it easily possi
ble to utilize these highways over long distances,
- The distances, it> is true, are still a protection;
but it would be foolish to close our eyes to the
fact that at various points of the public domain
of the United states we are still vulnerable to at
tack. The great benefit accruing to us by reason
of our distance from other nations is that it frees
us from the necessity of maintaining an army
upon war footing. We are free to count upon the
time necessary to pass from a peace to a war
footing. But this time is of little or no avail, if
previous preparation for such passage has not
been provided.”
AiBeriqans are peace loving people; they have no
territorial greed to sate, no dollar diplomacy to ply,
no. entangling alliances to support; but they have
certain national ideals that must be upheld and na
tional interests that must be conserved. If their
nation would be permanently peaceful, it must be
powerful, for, weakness in an open invitation to attack.
Let the United States he so strong that it will not
have to fight, and it will then not only be free from
the menace of war but also mightily effective in its
influence for peace.
This is a matter, as Secretary Garrison declares,
that comes home to the business and bosom of all
thinking citizens. The army should not he regarded
simply as a machine maintained against remote or
Imaginary dangers, hut as a hranch of all the people’s
vital interests. Its value are in no wise limited to
contingencies that may arise either in the near or
the faraway future; on the contrary it is of imme
diate and continuous use. It was the army that solved
the great problems in the building of the Panama
canal and carried forward the vast engineering and
civil and sanitary tasks involved. It is the army that
comes to the people’s aid in disasters of fire or flood
or earthquake. Its service in the field of sanitation
and medical progress is almost immeasurable. In
deed, the army is a great constructive as well as de
fensive force in our national life. Its claims should
receive generous consideration both at the hands of
Congress and the public. It is a part of the country’s
common interests of which the people “should know
more and care more.”
The Administration’s Triumph
In the Banking and Currency Bill.
The administration’s banking and currency hill
has weathered its roughest gales and will now move
auspiciously forward to enactment. For weeks past
ihere have been ill-advised though well-intentioned
efforts on the part of a few House Democrats to
burden this measure with amendments which, how
ever commendable within themselves they might be,
are not essential to the larger principles at stake
but would merely confuse the issue and delay, if
not defeat, a sorely needed reform. These untimely
proposals were rejected by the banking and currency
committee but thej were none the less vigorously re
vived in the sessions of the Democratic caucus
where, for a while, they threatened to split the par
ty’s well-ordered ranks. But on last Friday there
came a decisive test from which the administration
forces emerged stronger than ev<p and which, it
would seem, virtually assures the passage of the
hanking and currency hill before the present session
of Congress adjourns.
By a vote of one hundred and thirty-two to sixty,
the caucus decided that an amendment proposing to
place in the ctfrrency bill a ban upon interlock
ing directorates should not be included in this meas
ure but should be referred to the judiciary committee
as a basis for future legislation in regard to trusts.
The question did not concern the rightness or
wisdom of prohibiting interlocking directorates,
which are generally conceded to be a blight
upon normal and wholesome ousiness com
petition; it *mcerned the advisability of encumber
ing currency and banking reform with an issue
apart from the main purpose in view. It was a test
of Democracy's clear-headedness and workmanship,
a test of whether the majority in the House would
continue to do the right thing at the right time, all
hands working together, or would fall into jarring
groups like the vain builders of Babel.
The President has stood nrmly by the House
leaders in insisting that the hanking and currency;
bill should be kept free from irrelevant issues; and
the House leaders have stood stanchly by the Presi
dent in insisting that none of the vital principles of
the bill be compromised. Mr. Bryan in his admirable
and effective letter to Chairman Glass stated the case
convincingly when lie said:
“In attempting to secure remedial legislation
care must be taken not to overload a good meas
ure with amendments, however good these amend
ments may be ivithin themselves. A boat may be
sunk, if you attempt to make it carry too much,
however valuable the merchandise. The Presi
dent and Secretary McAdoo, in conjunction with
the chairmen of the currency committees of the
House and Senate, have formulated a tentative
measure. It was prepared after extensive inves
tigation and comparison of views. It embodies
certain provisions of great importance and is, I
believe, fundamentally sound. These main pro
visions are, to my mind, of such transcendent im
portance that I am relatively but little concerned
with the details c; the bill. I do not mean to say
that the details are unimportant but whatever
mistakes may be made in details can be corrected
easily and soon. A wrong step in the matter of
principle would be more difficult to retract. I
take it for granted that no one who really is in
favor of the bill will permit a difference of opin
ion on a matter of detail to jeopardize the bill.”
That is the pith of the entire banking and cur
rency issue. The administration bill was not pre
sented as ideal In all particulars hut It embodied
three great provisions for adequate reform—public
control instead of private control of tt;e country’s
monetary system, a currency that will be elastic
and responsive to the needs of sound credit instead
of rigid and unresponsive as now and, finally, due
safeguards against the abnormal concentration of
monetary resources at particular points and by par
ticular interests. These principles are the important
things in the pending bill, and it is their triumph in
whi h the country is vitally interested. Whatever
differences of opinion there may he in regard to d3-
tails, the fact remains that the essential features of
this bill satisfy more thoughtful people than any
otter measure of the kind ever proposed; and by
rallying unitedly to its .enactment the Democratic
Congress can render a service which for timeliness
and practical value will be almost unparalleled in
the nation’s legislative history.
Unless all omens fail this is what Congress
will do. Last week’s significant vote in the Demo-
m.’atic caucus practically puts an end to serious op
position in the House. The bill will now be speedily
ratified by the caucus and that means its prompt
adoption by the House. The Senate Democrats have
agreed that the hill shall he taken up Immediately aft
er the tariff measure is out of the, way, and that at
the latest will be only a few weeks hence. They
have agreed furthermore that if need be they will
stay in Washington “till the snow flies” to carry out
the work before them. They have the determination,
the loyalty and th votes to put through the bank
ing and currency bill.
The enactment of a thoroughgoing tariff meas
ure alone would le a monumental achievement for
the Wilson administration but when to this is added
an equally important currency measure, both within
the same session of Congress, the record becomes
truly marvelous.
When Cotton Pickers Are Scarce.
When the harvest is ripe and the laborers are
few, the virtues of a well-enforced vagrancy law be
come particularly manifest.
It often happens at this season of the year that
farmers are unable to secure cotton pickers through
any inducement. However liberal a wage may be
offered, the inveterate idlers prefer to lounge about
their urban haunts, taking the chance of what W. S.
calls “fish of fortune’s buttering” rather than do a
week of honest, well-paid work in the fields.
Scarcity of labor at such a time becomes a very
grave problem; the crop must be guttered or be
ruined. Then, it is that the vagrancy law should be
taken down and applied with unremitting vigor.
Thomasville has recently inaugurated a campaign
against loafers with the result that the farmers of
that district have hands aplenty.
-Svery town and city in the State will do well to
follow this example. If it is a lamentable thing to
see a man without a job, it is almost equally so to
see a job without a man.
Vagrancy is an undesirable and a dangerous thing
at all times. It is especially so at a season when cot
ton pickers are so imperatively needed.
We often wonder if soma self-made men do not
suffer from remorse.
Never judge the value of an article by the price
asked for it.
Modern Road Building.
It is within years comparatively recent that most
American communities have realized the need of
scientific and businesslike methods in road building.
A generation ago highways were maintained by un
skilled and indifferent labor recruited from the
countryside among njen who worked out their road
tax. In the spring of the year when the neighbors
had nothing better to do, they would sally, forth in
picnic fashion, chop the weeds from the side of the
road, heap masses of earth in its middle and then
go home content, "'he first heavy rains would make
the road more impassable than ever. Little or no
attention was given to problems of drainage or to
the question of suitable materials. There was no
oversight worth the name, no plan, no system. Little
wonder that most highways went from bad to worse
and that even the people who were earnestly inter
ested in road improvement grew discouraged.
But today road building has taken its place among
the practical arts and sciences. Following the great
upsweep of popular interest in this cause which was
inspired very largely by the automobile, county offi
cials and good roads crusaders began to study efficient
methods of highway construction and maintenance.
Colleges and universities introduced courses in road
building and now no community that is abreast the
times will undertake work of this character without
the advice of a competent engineer. A writer in the
Milwaukee Sentinel well says in this connection;
“The building of roads is vitally a question of
proper construction. The building of wagon ■
roads is an engineering problem just as much as
the building of a railroad. It involves all 'the
elements of the latter. A good road must be prop
erly located, it must be well constructed, it must
be maintained. The first element of a good road
is a good foundation, then proper construction;
then the road must have sufficient crown to
carry off the water to the side ditches. The sur
face again should be made as impervious as the
materials at hand will permit in order that it
may shed the water. The surface has been
called the roof of the road. It must be properly
drained .by ditches at the sides. These are prob
lems which require the services of supervision
or advice of expert engineers. A railroad would
not permit a crowd of local farmers to lay its
grade or build its line. The building of a road
involves the same engineering problems. Hap
pily, however, the era of inefficiency is past and
the era of efficiency of good roads has arrived.”
The result of these changed conditions will mean
hot only better built and better kept roads, with
their inestimable value* in economic and social life,
but also cheaper reads. In highway investments as
in a.l other practical affairs a dollar efficiently spent
will yield larger and more lasting results than ten
dollars thoughtlessly put out.
The older we get the. more it hurts us to be
scolded.
Many a man’s wishbone is where his backbone
ought to be.
The President’s Mexican Policy.
If Huerta ever really thought, as he said he
did, that President Wilson’s Mexican policy was
“partisan” and not approved by public sentiment in
the United States, he is now convinced of his seri
ous misapprehension. The attitude of Congress, re
gardless of .party alignment, ana of representative
newspapers the country over clearly shows that the
American people are of one mind in indorsing the
President’s course, not only in his refusal to recog
nize the lawless Huerta regime, but also in hiB pa
tient, earnest efforts to restore peace and orderly
government in the neighboring republic.
If the would-be dictator of Mexico expected any
sympathy or countenance from Americans who dif
fer with the administration on political and domes
tic issues, his hopes were vain. The Mexican situa
tion has been treated at Washington as entirely
non-political and non-partisan. Mr. Wilson has taken
all the members of the Senate forei 8 n relations com
mittee, Republicans as well as Democrats, into his
counsel. His policy has been neither Democratic
nor Republican in any narrow sense hut distinctly
and wholly American; and he deal- with this gra-e
matter from first to last not as a party issue but
as a national issue.
“The country knows," as the New York Her
ald declares, “that the President will not under
any pretext plunge us into war, if war can be
honorably avoided. It knows, too, that Presi
dent Wilson would not willingly pursue any pol
icy that would result in a prolongation of the
internal strife from which the Mexican people
are so grievously suffering. It understands, in
a word, that President Wilson’s policy is a pol
icy of peace and that all his efforts are being
bent toward finding some means to promote the
restoration of order and. tranquillity in Mexico.”
That this prudent and far-sighted course is about
to bring desired results, there is abundant evidence
to believe. It has not only arrayed the public senti
ment and public judgment of this country squarely
behind the administration but it has also won the
hearty approval and support of foreign Powers. So
thoroughly in accord with the Wilson policy are the
leading Governments of the Old World that they are
bringing to bear all the.diplomatic pressure at their
command to force Huerta into retirement. Thus de
prived of all moral sympathy and of every means to
replenish his exhausted treasury, this usurper who
stole into brief authority through crimes that out
raged civilization is now toppling to his fall. He
must either accept the proposals of our Government,
that he resign in favor of a provisional president
who shall administer Mexican -affairs until a consti
tutional election can he held, or else be crushed be
neath the weight of his own crumbling regime.
When Huerta is elim'nated, as he soon will be,
the Mexican problem, so far as the United States is
concerned, will be practically solved. And it will be
solved without forceful intervention, without the war
that would have burdened our country with incal
culable ills; it wL. be solved peacefully and hon
orably, for all of which the prudence and foresight
of President Wilson will deserve chief credit.
THE WARMAKERS
BY DR. FRANK CRANE.
(.Copyright, 1013, by Frank Crane.)
Conservation of Natural Gas
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
culled the children of God.”
Accursed, therefore, are the warmakers, for they
shall be called the children of
the devil.
There is no truth that should
be seared with Sinaitic fire upon
the minds of Americans so im
portant as this: That in our
present relations with Mexico or
Japan, or in any thinkable fu
ture relations, a better way than
war may be discovered to bring
about justice and harmony.
When Demos is the ruler he is
no better than kings.
The warmakers are with us.
Among them are these:
The rash, ignorant and adven
turous youth. They are filled
with the glamor of history, war-soaked and intoxicat
ing. They see only the thrill of the game; they do
not realize the horror of it.
Certain business interests. They would improve
the value of their foreign holdings, or make gain by
supplying armament or supplies to the army, or in
some way feather their own nests with the profits of
organized murder and rapine.
Certain politicians who see advancement for them
selves in arousing the war lust of the populace.
The army and navy, tired of idleness and eager for
advancement into dead men’s shoes.
The people at large, who are easily carried away by
a wave of war enthusiasm, who sweep aside the wis
dom and counsel of intelligent and humane states
men and lunge into any bloody excess where fanatic
and mistaken patriotism is opposed only by reason and
justice.
v\ r ar means graft piling up mountain high.
It means universal waste and extravagance.
It means millions of jobs for the unfit.
It means a thousand hungry hands thrust into the
national exchequer.
It means the prostitution of “patriotism” from a
high devotion to the public service to the wild vio
lence of brute pugnacity.
Surely a country as civilized as the United States
of America can never descend to the snarling methods
of the Balkan peninsula.
Quips and Quiddities
There is a delicious flavor about this story of a
■Virginia lady married to a man who, though uni
formly unsuccessful 4n his hunting trips, boastingly
spoke of his “killings.”
One. day, returning from a trip with the usual ac
companiment of an empty bag, it occurred to him that
his wife would make fun of him if he returned without
even one proof of his oft-boasted skill. So he pur
chased a brace of partridges to deceive his trusting
spouse. As he threw them on the table in front of her
he observed:
“Well, my dear, you see I am not so awkward with
the gun after all.”
“Dick,” replied the wife, turning from the birds
with a grimace, after a brief examination, “you were
quite right in shooting these birds today; tomorrow it
would have been too late.”
“I understand, Harry,” remarked the acquaintance,
“that your wife has started to practice economy. The
missus was saying something about it last night.”
“Yes,” replied Harry; “she is practicing economy
all right, and if your wife is thinking of taking a turn
in the same direction, you had better get busy and
head her off before it is too late.”
“I don’t understand you, Harry,” said the acquaint
ance, with a perplexed expression. “I should regard
economy as something to commend.”
“Yes,” was the smiling rejoinder, “but not when
your wife is buying your shirts at three for a dollar
so that she can get herself a twenty-dollar hat.”
Uncle Toby was agnast at finding a strange darky
with his arm around Mandy’s waist.
“Mandy, tell that mggah to take his ahm ’way
from round ’round yo’ waist,” he indignantly com
manded.
“Tell him yo’self,” said Mandy. “He’s a puffect
stranger to me.”
An English army veteran who had lost an arm in
feudal times, was very prejudiced against the Irish in
general. One day he exhibited tbe wound to a party
of soldiers, which suggested to an Irishman present
the question:
“Hov. r did you come to lose the arm, may I ask?”
“It was this way: There was a drop of Irish blood
in that arm, so I cut it off myself.”
‘‘Faith, ’tis a pity it wasn’t your neck,” retorted
Paddy.
An Irishman who wasn’t much of a hunter went
out to hunt, one day, and the first thing he saw to
shoot at was a bird sitting saucily on the top of a
fence. He blazed away and then walked over to pick
up the victim. What he happened to find there was
a dead frog, which he raised at arm’s length, looking
at it with a uzzled air. Finally he remarked:
“Well, but ye was a deuce of a foine looking bird
before Oi blew the fithers off o’ ye!”
’ Wise is the man who puts his ears on the job and
gives his tongue a vacation.
Meeting a negro, a certain southern gentleman
asked him how he was getting on.
The negro assumed a troubled look, and replied:
“Oh! so far as physicality goes, I’m all right. But
I sure do have troubles wif niah wife.”
“Well, Sam, I’m sorry to hear th°t. What seems
to be the matter?”
“She thinks money grows on trees, I reckon. All
de time she keeps pesterin' me foh pinch o’ change.
If it ain’t a dollali, it’s a half or a quarter she wants.”
“What on earth does she do with tne money?”
“I dunno. Ain’t nevali gie v’er none yet.”
Pointed Paragraphs
The liar has lots of competition.
* *
Isn’t it queer how little a bigot is?
• • •
It’s a long lane that isn’t tainted with gasoline.
* * «
Nothing prospers like the grafter—for a time.
* * »
But it is the natural bent of some men to be
broke.
* * *
Trust the budding orator to deliver a flowery
speech.
* • *
Once in a white a man doesn’t forget his old
friends after acquiring wealth and fame.
* * *
I must bother President Wilson’s enemies to see
how he meets and overcomes obstacles as they rise.
• • r
Mr. McAdoo will please send along our currency so
as to reach us in time for the first of next month’s
bills.
• • • . I
Dispatches continue to indicate that the tariff
bill will be passed; that the currency measure will
mfeet a similar experience; that Japan is mollified
and that Huerta is about to resign; and yet there
are some who complain because Wilson uses good
grammer and Bryan drinks grape juice.
Natural gas, in the opinion of many people, Is the
most perfect fuel, and one that must be relied upon'
to supply much of the artificial heat of the future.)
Yet the wanton wa&t** of this
substance, which nas been going)
on unchecked for years, amounts
to millions of dollars annually.}
The matter has lately claimed
the attention of the United!
States bureau of mines. An in
vestigation into the subject reJ
suited in the discovery that nat-!
ural gas in enormous quantities
is being allowed to escape uns
checked into the air whereva**'
petroleum is being taken from)
*the wells. The greatest waste
is in Oklahoma, Louisiana and'
California, where the oil ‘indus
try has been most recently be-l
gun. In Oklahoma at present a million cubic feet oC
natural gas is escaping every day. This has a daily
value of $20,000. or $7,500,000 in a single year. In
fuel value this Waste is equivalent to 1,250,000 tons
of the best bituminous coal. The waste in Louisiana!
seems even more deplorable because that state has no
coal resources 'within its own boundaries. While thd
natural gas, which might furnish heat in thousands
of homes, is being wasted in the air, the citizens of!
Louisiana are paying for coal which has to be trans-*
ported for some distance. The waste in California!
is unfortunate because the gas of that locality is rich!
in gasoline which is now the most desirable of the pe4
troleum products and one . for which the demand isl
exceeding the supply.
• • •
The waste in Louisiana last year was equivalent
to a loss of nearly $5,500,000, and in California it
demonstrations of the conservation of natural re
amounted to $8,000,000. Similar wastes in other*
states make a grand total of at least $23,000,000 whiclii
was lost to the nation last year in natural gas. The!
bureau of mines, in its effort to check this enormous!
waste, has already accomplished one of the most nota
ble sources ever given to the world. By the application!
of methods devised, a checking of at least $13,000,00o!
of this waste will be secured during the present year. 1
• • •
Natural gas exists wherever petroleum is found.'
In their efforts to secure the oil quickly, the operator^
have been boring through the gas veins which lie over
tne oil deposits and, without closing the openings thuat
made, have permitted th e gas to escape into the air. t
The production of oil in Oklahoma during the last few)
years has been unparalleled and has brought about ai
perfect frenzy of speculation. Each operator has been'
obsessed with the idea of taking out oil more rapioiy]
than his competitor. Under the old methods of -oil'
drilling, additional ^outlay was required to conserve!
the gas and this the operators were not willing ta
make.
. • • *
At present there is little local demand for natural
gas in the state of Oklahoma. If piped into that
towns 'it will bring about five cents a foot; but the!
supply is eo largely in excess of the demand that thej
expense of piping is not regarded as a good invest-'
ment, and until recently no attention has Deen paid
to its conversation for the future. The bureau of
mines met with much opposition from the oil operators*
who declared that no one wanted the gas while thq
demand for oil is pressing, and at first there was dlf-*„
ficulty in securing wells in which the bureau couldj
demonstrate its improved methods.
• • •
The bureau recognized the fact that while, event
ually, there will be a demand for natural gas all over)
the country, the oil operators cannot afford to wait)
for it to develop before taking out the oil which ia'
already wanted. Therefore, their methods had to in-f
elude the means of saving the gas which would not'
interfere with the present pumping of the oiL So well'
has this been accomplished that the operators whe
first opposed it now write to the bureau stating that)
the new process has materially aided in increasing the
oil production.
• • •
Several methods of doing this have been demon
strated. The most popular consists in pumping intoi
the drill a quantity of the soft, slimy mud to be found’
in oil fields. This is mixed with the water which is,
kept around the drill and this mud-laden liquid causes’
deposits which close up around the well and prevent]
t)ie escape of the gas. Caps and casings are also pro
vided for the purpose and their use materially lessens'
the difficulties of oil production. Aside from their,
first object of conserving the natural gas, the methods
advocated by the bureau of mines have reduced the
danger of oil drilling at least 60 per cent. They make
possible the production of oil from wells which had
been abandoned because of great gas pressure.
• • •
Largely through the influence of the bureau ofi
mines, a strong m-vement tending toward the con-|
servation of natural gas is developing throughout the,
country. This includes preventive measures in the]
opening of new wells and remedial measures in clos
ing up wells already in operation from which the gasi
is escaping. It also provides for greater care in
transportation, including well constructed pipes which!
prevent leakage. It has been claimed that some of|
the “wild” ^vells from which gas is escaping in large
quantities cannot be controlled or checked. One ofj
the largest of these was in the Caddo oil fields of,
Louisiana. It was closed under the direction of thei
bureau of mines by drilling another well about 150
feet from the crater of the ‘‘wild’’ well. A passage I
was opened up between the new well and the “wild”
well and water containing a large amount of muddy
silt was pumped in. The sediment soon closed up the,
pores in the sand surrounding the “wild” well, thus!
shutting off the gas.
...
In many of the states laws already have been;
passed requiring the closing up or capping of every
gas well not in use. In Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana)
and' California efficient laws regulating this matter,
are in operation. The commission on the conservation!
of natural resources is now recommending a law in
Louisiana jjroviding that when the owners of natural i
gas wells fail to close them, they shall be capped by
the state and the owners compelled to bear the ex
pense. In England and France gas wells drilled,
through a coal mine are required by law to be capped
with cement.
• • •
One of the great sources of loss in natural gas is
from fire, which in many Instances could be pre-
vented. A gas well is usually set on fire by the
less use of machines by unprotected fires under bolters
-nd sometimes from the friction of pebbles strliking
against each other as they are being expelled with
great force. In some oil fields great fires consuming
both oil and gas have been started by lightning. The i
gas is usually set on fire before the oil. A few years
ago the quenching of a burning oil or gas well was
regarded as almost Impossible, but now R can be ac
complished with proper care and equipment In the
Glenn pool in Oklahoma a 20,000,000-foot well caught
fire and was put out after several weeks by a battery
of steam boilers which suffocated the flames with
steam. An enormous burning well near Colic#, Kan.,
was extinguished by the ingenious device of J. C. Mc
Dowell. It consisted of a gigantic hood made of boil
er plate. This was raised and dropped into the well
by means of cranes and derricks. The first attempt
was unsuccessful because the hood was destroyed by
a hot sand blast, but the second was fixed firmly In
place, thereby shutting out the air and extinguishing
the fire.
We are fanatical enough in our admiration of the
president as it is, but we’ll go the limit, and say,
without fear of sut :sful contradiction, that he could
umpire the last game for the pennant, umpire it in
the home town of one team, and still cause no com
plaint from the visitors. .