er power is west of the
Mississippi, whereas over 70 per cent of the total horsepower now
installed in prime movers is east of the river. Therefore unless the
East is to lose its industrial supremacy it must press and press hard
for the development of all water-power possibilities!

THE AGE OF PETROLEUM.

For a full century now we have been passing through different phases of
industrial and commercial life which have been characterized by some
form of power. First the age of steam, and then the age of electricity.
We have passed out of neither and yet we have come into another
age--that of petroleum. As a lubricant, it has become of such universal
use that it has been called the barometer of industry, and no doubt
after it has ceased to be a popular illuminant or a source of power it
will live invaluable as the thing which lets the wheels go round. Its
greatest popularity now arises out of its use in the internal-combustion
engine, and of the making of these there is no end. It draws railroad
trains and drives street cars. It pumps water, lifts heavy loads, has
taken the place of millions of horses, and in 20 years has become a
farming, industrial, business, and social necessity. The naval and the
merchant ships of this country and of England are fitted and being
fitted to use it either under steam boilers as fuel or directly in the
Diesel engine. The airplane has been made possible by it. It propels
that modern juggernaut, the tank. In the air it has no rival, while on
land and sea it threatens the supremacy of its rivals whenever it
appears. There has been no such magician since the day of Aladdin as
this drop of mineral oil. Medicines and dyes and high explosives are
distilled from it. No one knows whence it cometh or whither it goeth.
Men search for it with the passion of the early Argonauts, and the
promise now is that nations will yet fight to gain the fitful bed in
which it lies.

In Persia and in Palestine, in Java and in China, in southern Russia and
in Rumania we know that petroleum is, for it has been found there. How
great these fields or others in Europe, Asia, or Africa may be no one
would dare to say. As yet, however, the petroleum of the world has come
from this hemisphere.

The "oil spring" which George Washington found in western Virginia and
by his last will called to the especial consideration of his trustees
was the promise of a continental well which last year yielded
356,000,000 barrels. Ea