ment
and distribution of petroleum and its products abroad.
(3) Governmental action--through special agency or board:
(_a_) Through the organization of a subsidiary governmental
corporation with power to produce, purchase, refine, transport,
store, and market oil and oil products.
(_b_) Through the formation of a permanent petroleum
administration.
(4) To assure to our nationals the exclusive opportunity to
explore, develop, and market the oil resources of the Philippine
Islands, provided discriminatory policies of other nations against
our nationals are not abandoned or satisfactorily modified.
I have given much thought during the past year to this problem of adding
to our petroleum supply, and it has seemed to me but fair that we
should first make every effort to increase the domestic supply through
the methods that have been indicated--
(1) The saving of that which is now wasted, below ground and above
ground.
(2) The more intensive use, through new machinery and devices, of the
supply which we have.
(3) The development of oil fields on our withdrawn territory and in new
areas such as the Philippines.
In addition, we must look abroad for a supplemental supply, and this may
be secured through American enterprise if we do these things:
(1) Assure American capital that if it goes into a foreign country and
secures the right to drill for oil on a legal and fair basis (all of
which must be shown to the State Department) it will be protected
against confiscation or discrimination. This should be a known,
published policy.
(2) Require every American corporation producing oil in a foreign
country to take out a Federal charter for such enterprise under which
whatever oil it produces should be subject to a preferential right on
the part of this Government to take all of its supply or a percentage
thereof at any time on payment of the market price.
(3) Sell no oil to a vessel carrying a charter from any foreign
government either at an American port or at any American bunker when
that government does not sell oil at a nondiscriminatory price to our
vessels at its bunkers or ports.
The oil industry is more distinctively American than any other of the
great basic industries. It has been the creation of no one class or
group but of many men of many kinds--the hardy, keen-eyed prospector
with a "nose for oil" who spent his months upon the deserts an
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