Standard Oct 21-56. Millions of Barrels Independent Petroleum Assn. of America estimates that the United States demand for petroleum products is at the rate of 9,800,000 barrels a day and approaching 10,000,000 barrels a day. Nearly every American is a customer for petroleum products but we doubt that many know the industry has reached such tremendous size. Ten million barrels a day can be a reality of tomorrow. Yet there are many persons alive in the country today who remember clearly the days when there wasn’t a gasoline service station on any highway and the principal petroleum product was kerosene to burn in the household lamps. New York Times reports that the independents brood over the fact that a large share of the increased demand for petroleum products will be supplied by imports. We doubt that consumers share this gloom. Let us continue to draw from overseas to prevent the rapid depletion of our own petroleum reserves. Let us postpone for as many years as possible the sense of insecurity that will overwhelm us the moment we learn our petroleum supplies have shrunk to a trickle.