Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, February 3, 1923!
Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
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Natural gas news from a hundred years ago offers great perspective for discussing one of the cleanest sources of energy available then and still today.
I thought it might be fun and illuminating to look back 100 years ago at what was happening with natural gas. It is eye opening, given all we’ve learned over the last century. There is, indeed, little new under the sun, as our stories repeatedly demonstrate. Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, January 27, 1923. Read our 100-year old news items on the subjects of divining rods, courtesy and consideration, calling for investigations, county natural gas and oil inspectors and more taxes.
No Divining Roads Please!
Apparently, modern technology in natural gas and oil exploration a century ago did not include “divining rods.”
03 Feb 1923, Sat Great Falls Tribune (Great Falls, Montana) Newspapers.com
Who knew?
Courtesy and Consideration? Well, Yes!
Some things never grow old do they?
03 Feb 1923, Sat Winfield Daily Courier (Winfield, Kansas) Newspapers.com
Nice to see the natural gas industry believed in being nice. It’s still that way, you know. And, as for the price, well, that 50 cents in 1923 is the equivalent of $8.56 today. It’s more expensive today in most states, but for one reason only—the failure to build pipelines where needed due to green and NIMBY politics.
If Nice Doesn’t Work, Call for Investigation of Yourself!
This full page ad takes a somewhat different approach with regard to natural gas rates:
03 Feb 1923, Sat Press-Telegram (Long Beach, California) Newspapers.com
They always do things differently in California, of course, and it’s seldom pretty, but telling your customers you’re effectively suing yourself on their behalf seems a bit over the top.
Oregon Politicians Spy Opportunity for Graft?
County natural gas and oil inspectors? That probably meant but only thing; politicians saw patronage and grifting opportunities.
03 Feb 1923, Sat The Capital Journal (Salem, Oregon) Newspapers.com
Yes, as I noted above some things never change or go out of style.
And, Tax Increases Prove the Point
Yes, government, once it’s in the door, leaves its dirty footprints everywhere, as they say.
03 Feb 1923, Sat Spokane Chronicle (Spokane, Washington) Newspapers.com
Note they also wanted a state income tax on top of the extra natural gas and oil taxes. There’s no limit to a politician’s thirst for someone else’s money to give away.
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