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Read Ebook: Joe Strong the Boy Fish; or Marvelous Doings in a Big Tank by Barnum Vance
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Ebook has 687 lines and 47878 words, and 14 pages
And, as if that was not enough, America is planning to develop, by motor traction, the means of transport in Asia, the continent without railways. We may predict for this a consumption of 120 million tons in the near future.
Their consumption increased in 1920 by 25 per cent.; their production only by 11 per cent. And already fears are entertained that it may diminish. Two-thirds of the oil-fields of Oklahoma, which state alone produces nearly one-quarter of the total, have been developed; and the number of borings tends to diminish.
If the increase in world-consumption of oil continues at the rate that it has done during the past few years, the oil reserves of the United States, calculated on the basis of 70 barrels to each inhabitant, without allowing for increase of population, would, according to the Smithsonian Institute, come to an end about the year 1927.
These figures seem to me a little exaggerated, for the reserves contained in the soil of the United States cannot possibly be completely exploited in so short a time. But the figures published by the Geological Survey of the Department of the Interior shows that other countries consume half as much oil as the United States, while their soil contains seven times more.
"These countries consume at the present time two million barrels a year; at this rate, they have reserves sufficient for 250 years. The United States consume 400 million barrels a year; they have only enough for 18 years.
"The total amount of oil which can still be extracted from the soil of the entire world has been computed at 60,000 million barrels--43,000 million have already been brought to the surface by successful borings.
"Of the 60,000 million which remain to be extracted, 7,000 million are to be found in the United States and in Alaska; 53,000 million in the rest of the world."
That is why the American Navy, having in view the treatment of bituminous shale by distillation, has reserved to itself the rights over immense deposits, chiefly in Colorado and Utah. If the United States do not succeed in acquiring new oil-fields in the rest of the world, the position will become so serious that they will only be able to avoid war at the price of economic vassalage.
There is oil in all parts of the world, and yet dominion over oil is one of the most concentrated possible.
From Alaska almost to Tierra del Fuego, every country in the New World possesses some.
Alaska.
Canada: its presence was discovered in 1789 by Sir Alexander Mackenzie.
United States.
Mexico.
Central America.
Venezuela.
Trinidad, Guiana.
Colombia.
Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia.
Chili, the Argentine.
Brazil and Uruguay: it is hoped that oil will be found shortly.
In Europe it is less evenly distributed:
Hanover .
Alsace.
Italy.
Poland. The Ukraine. Rumania.
Asia is nearly as rich as America:
The Caucasus.
Persia, Mesopotamia.
Dutch Indies.
Siam, Burma.
China.
Japan and Formosa.
Africa and Oceania, on the contrary, seem to possess only small quantities of the precious oil. There is some in North Africa, in Egypt, and possibly in Madagascar. The great British prospecting group, which I have already mentioned in connection with Hungary, is making a thorough search at this moment in Western Australia and New Zealand.
FOOTNOTES:
PART II
THE STRUGGLE OF THE TRUSTS
THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY
Although it sometimes happens that governments oppose each other openly in the struggle for oil, as in the case of Poland, Rumania, the Caucasus, and Turkey, they prefer, in general, to hide behind trusts.
The first is the most important. All are federated under one great administrative body.
There were in 1870, in the United States, 250 refineries, which waged among themselves a merciless price-war.
Six years after its inauguration, it already acquired the greater part of the crude oil produced in the United States. Moreover, its capital had been twice increased, in 1872 and 1874.
At the end of ten years, it transported and distributed 95 per cent. of the American output.
The Agreement of January 2, 1882
It was the first time that the word "Trust" appeared in the name of a firm. A Committee of nine members, or trustees, was formed. It comprised all the Rockefeller family: John Rockefeller, Payne, William Rockefeller, Bestwick, Flager, Warden, Pratt, Brewster, Archbold. The nine trustees became the sole delegates and depositories of all the 39 companies conjointly engaged. They received from each concern the shares and the corresponding voting powers. Trust Certificates, of a nominal value of 100 dollars, were exchanged for shares only in the proportion of the value of each undertaking to the total value of all the undertakings constituting the Trust.
Companies of four kinds entered the combine of 1882:--
These twenty-four companies placed themselves under the control of the Trust from 1882 onward. Two others have come in under compulsion:--
Causes of the Success of the Standard
Its Two Dissolutions--Roosevelt's Fight against the Standard Oil
Twice over, in 1892 and 1911, its constitution was judged illegal, but in vain.
In 1892 the system of nine trustees was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Ohio. The trustees voted the dissolution of the Trust, but continued to administer all the corporations in the same way until 1899. The Trust was apparently divided into twenty distinct companies; the nine old trustees distributed the shares in such a way as to possess the majority in each one. Thus they made sure, as before, of unity of direction. Rockefeller had reversed the judgment of the court.
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