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THE MEXICAN PROBLEM

chemical compounds are formed so that in reality a new combination produces a new and lighter oil. It is said that oil can now be cracked at a cost of three and a half cents per barrel.

The Pan-American people realize the obligation resting upon them to expand the market for oils in every possible direction.

The report of the Federal Trade Commission, that found Standard Oil interests still dominating the price of gasolene, should again emphasize how so-called anti-trust laws are responsible for the abolition of competition and really prevent the lowering of prices.

The Washington report shows the division of gasolene marketing into eleven territorial areas, nine of which are said to be dominated by various Standard Oil companies, which produced more than sixty per cent of the gasolene in 1915 and made sixty-five per cent of the total sales.

I have always been annoyed in shifting my motor gasolene purchases from one oil company to another to find that very soon the price for my gasolene was regulated by the Standard Oil price and that, notwithstanding any market conditions or supplies, when the independent oil man had hooked me on as a customer he was very shortly giving nothing but Standard Oil