licy as to things that are to be.

This Government might itself well undertake to develop an engine of this
type for use on its ships, tractors, and trucks. We simply can not
afford to preach economy in oil when we do not promote by every means
the use of the internal-combustion engine for its consumption. No other
one thing that can be done by the Government, our industries, or the
people will save as much oil from being wasted and thereby multiply the
real production of the United States. If such engines are delicate of
handling and need specially trained engineers, which appears to be the
fact, there should be little difficulty experienced in training men for
such work. A nation that could educate 10,000 automobile mechanics in 60
days might indeed develop 1,000 Diesel engineers in a year. The matter
is of too great moment for delay. It touches the interest of everyone.
We are in the petroleum age, and how long it will last depends upon our
own foresight, inventiveness, and wisdom.

WANTED--A FOREIGN SUPPLY.

Already we are importers of petroleum. We are to be larger importers
year by year if we continue--and we will--to invent and build machines
which will rely upon oil or its derivatives as fuel. Our business
methods have been and doubtless will continue to be developed along
lines that make a continuing oil supply a necessity. Some of that oil
must come from abroad, as nearly 40,000,000 barrels did last year, and
for that we must compete with the world. For while we are the
discoverers of oil and of the methods of securing it and refining it,
piping it, and using it, our pioneering is but a service unto the world.

This situation calls for a policy prompt, determined, and looking many
years ahead. For the American Navy and the American merchant marine and
American trade abroad must depend to some extent upon our being able to
secure, not merely for to-day but for to-morrow as well, an equal
opportunity with other nations to gain a petroleum supply from the
fields of the world. We are now in the world and of it in every possible
sense, otherwise our Navy and our merchant fleet would have no excuse.
No one needs to justify them--they are the expression of an ambition
that carries no danger to any people. For their support we can ask no
preference, but in their maintenance we can insist that they shall not
be discriminated against.

Sometime since I presented to a board of geologists, engineers, and
economists