Oil has begun to flow out of Iran freely, the first in over three years. The flow was halted by the Mossadegh quarrel with Britain. Several large American oil companies own a percentage of the oil and it is being offered at a price a little less than the world market price.

No doubt the coming of this oil is one reason why the independent oil companies are hurrying to Washington to ask curbs on the importation on oil, which now amounts to about a billion dollars per day. This import naturally tends to hold down the domestic production of some 6 million barrels.

What Washington has to decide, the administration and Congress, in the coming months is whether it will put the consumer, or the producer, above the other. More important, the decision will involve also whether to hurry up the depletion of this vital natural resource. We ought to use as much foreign oil as is practicable, saving our domestic supply for troubled times when import is impossible.