ing
these experiments, and almost daily the quack or the stock promoter
comes forward with the announcement of a discovery which proves to be a
revelation--a revelation of human stupidity or criminal cupidity. On
this line the men of science do not sing a song of the richest hope;
they shrug their shoulders, exclaiming with uplifted hands: "Well, may
be, may be."

There are possible substitutes for some petroleum products, but not for
the whole barrel of oil; furthermore, petroleum is the cheapest
material, speaking quantitatively, from which liquid fuels and
lubricants can be made; therefore, any substitutes obtained in quantity
must cost more. Alcohol can be substituted for gasoline, but only in
limited quantity and at increased cost. Benzol from byproduct coking
ovens also can be used, but quantitatively is totally inadequate. For
kerosene no quantitative substitute is known. Lubricants can be obtained
from animal and vegetable fats, but mostly are inferior in quality, and
there seems no hope of obtaining them in quantity. Fuel oil can be
largely supplanted by coal, but for the internal-combustion engine there
is no quantitative substitute.

USE THE DIESEL ENGINE.

We have ventured on a great shipbuilding program. Our people are to once
again respond to the call of the sea. On private ways and on Government
ways ships are being built to go round the world--ships that are to burn
oil under boilers and produce steam. I presume that there is a
justification for this policy, perhaps one that is as good, if not
better, than can be made for the railroads of the West pursuing the same
policy. I submit, however, that there should be justification shown for
the construction of any oil-burning ship which does not use an engine of
the Diesel type. To burn oil under a boiler and convert it into steam
releases but 10 per cent of the thermal units in the oil, whereas if
this same fuel oil were used directly in a Diesel engine, 30 to 35 per
cent of the power in the oil would be secured. Substitute the
internal-combustion engine for the steam boiler and we multiply by three
or three and one-half the supply of fuel oil in the United States.
Instead of our fuel-oil supply being, let us say, 200,000,000 barrels,
it would at once rise to 600,000,000 barrels or 700,000,000. I recognize
that this is an impractical and unrealizable hope as applied to things
as they are, but there is no reason why this should not be a very
definite po