A year ago, gasoline was selling in Monroe for 16 cents a
gallon. Since that time the price climbed till it reached 27 cents, and there
it hung a long time. It has made a slight start downward and is selling at 25
cents. On this point the New York World says:
But why does gasoline suddenly become cheaper after as
suddenly becoming dear? That is the prize puzzle of a system of price-fixing of
which the oil industry has furnished many examples. The present reduction is
attributed to increased production and a slackening for the demand for the fuel
for the military needs of Europe. But certainly the domestic demand both for
industrial and pleasure uses has enormously increased. The decline in price of
crude oil has been slight, and it is not assumed that the long established and
efficiently managed producing companies have only at this late day effected
economies which make its production cheaper. Why, then, does gasoline cost less
now than a month or a week ago?
Gasoline is more than ever a public necessity. The recent
extreme fluctuations in its price have inspired Congressional inquiries. The
Federal Trade Commission has just finished an investigation of methods of
production and conditions of cost. Yet the mystery remains at most half solved.
A good way to clear it up might be to subject the entire oil industry to
Federal supervision.
If every State in which oil lands are located were to put a
tax on every acre of oil bearing land based upon the rate at which such lands
sell on the market, gasoline would sell everywhere in six months at 10 cents or
less per gallon. A similar method adopted for coal fields would cut the price
in half in two. The trouble is that the coal and oil producing lands have been
monopolized and the supply is thus shut off. No amount of government
legislation is going to do any lasting good. An adequate tax on all lands would
open up the supply and bust the monopoly and nothing else will.
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