of the bills have the same foundation, that is, the right to buy, sell and transport natural gas in interstate commerce notwithstanding the provision of the statute.

The suits were numbered in the court below 856, 857,

Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Oklahoma:

SECTION 1. Any firm, co-partnership, association or combination of individuals may become a body corporate under the laws of this State for the purpose of producing, transmitting or transporting natural gas to points within this State by complying with the general corporation laws of the State of Oklahoma, and with this act.

SEC. 2. No corporation organized for the purpose of, or engaged in the transportation or transmission of natural gas within this State shall be granted a charter or right of eminent domain, or right to use the highways of this State unless it shall be expressly stipulated in such charter that it shall only transport or transmit natural gas through its pipe lines to points within this State; that it shall not connect with, transport to, or deliver natural gas to individuals, associations, copartnership companies or corporations engaged in transporting or furnishing natural gas to points, places or persons outside of this State.

SEC. 3. Foreign corporations formed for the purpose of, or engaged in the business of transporting or transmitting natural gas by means of pipe lines, shall never be licensed or permitted to conduct such business within this State.

SEC. 4. No association, combination, co-partnership or corporation shall have or exercise the right of eminent domain within this State for the purpose of constructing, or maintaining a gas pipe line or lines within this State, or shall be permitted to take private or public property for their use within this State, unless expressly granted such power in accordance with this act.

SEC. 5. The laying, constructing, building and maintaining a gas pipe line or lines for the transportation or transmission of natural gas along, over, under, across, or through the highways, roads, bridges, streets, or alleys in this State, or of any county, city, municipal corporation or any other public or private premises within this State is hereby declared an additional burden upon said highway, bridge, road, street or alley, and any other private, or public premises may only be done when the right is granted by express charter from the State and shall not be constructed, maintained, or operated until all damages to adjacent owners are ascertained and paid as provided by law.

SEC. 6. All pipe lines for the transportation or transmission of natural gas in this State shall be laid under the direction and inspection

221 U.S.

Opinion of the Court.

858 and 859. In 856 the Kansas Natural Gas Company was complainant. It is a corporation of the State of Delaware, and is engaged in the business of purchasing and distributing natural gas to consumers. It has a contract of proper persons skilled in such business to be designated by the chief mining inspector for such duty, and the expenses of such inspection and supervision shall be borne and paid for by the parties laying and constructing such pipe lines for the transportation or transmission of natural gas.

SEC. 7. No pipe line for the transportation or transmission of nattural gas shall be subjected to a greater pressure than three hundred pounds to the square inch, except for the purpose of testing such lines, and gas pumps shall not be used on any gas pipe lines for the transportation or transmission of natural gas or used on or in any gas well within this State.

SEC. 8. Any corporation granted the right under the provisions of this act to exercise the right of eminent domain, or use the highways of this State to construct or maintain a gas pipe line or lines for the transportation or transmission of natural gas to points within this State, which shall transport or transmit any natural gas to a point outside of, or beyond this State, or shall connect with or attempt to connect with or threaten to connect with any gas pipe line furnishing, transporting, or transmitting gas to a point outside of, or beyond this State, shall by each or all of said acts, forfeit all right granted it or them by the charter from this State, and said forfeiture shall extend back to the time of the commission of said act or said acts in violation of this act; and such act or acts shall of themselves work a forfeiture of any and all rights of any and every kind and character which may be or may have been granted by the State for the transportation or transmission of natural gas within this State, and all the property of said corporation and all the property at any time belonging to said corporation, at any time used in the construction, maintaining or operation of said gas pipe line or lines shall, in due course of law, be forfeited to and be taken into the possession of the State through its proper officer and in said action there shall be a right to the State of the appointment of a receiver, either before or after the judgment, to be exercised at the option of the State, and the officer taking possession of said property shall immediately disconnect said pipe line or lines at a proper point in this State from any pipe line or lines going out of, or beyond the State. And said property shall be sold as directed by the court having jurisdiction of said proceedings, and the proceeds of said sale shall be applied, first

VOL. CCXXI-16

for the purchase of all the gas that can be produced from a certain well in Washington County, Oklahoma, and has acquired by purchase the right of way over the land upon which the well is located for the laying of a pipe line for the transportation of the gas, and proposes to extend its trunk pipe lines from the present southern terminus thereof in the State of Kansas southward across the Oklahoma state line to the well. It also proposes to construct lateral and branch lines from the trunk line so extended for the purpose of gathering and receiving such gas as it may be able to purchase from the owners of other wells. Its line will not be used in any way for local traffic, but only for the transportation of the gas from the wells in Oklahoma into the States of Kansas and Missouri.

to the payment of the cost of such proceeding, and the remainder, if any, paid into the school fund of the State, and said charter under which said act or acts were committed shall be revoked, and no charter for the transportation or transmission of natural gas shall ever be granted to any corporation having among its stockholders any person who was one of the stockholders of said corporation whose charter has or may have been forfeited as aforesaid, and if any such charter shall have been granted, and thereafter a person shall become a stockholder thereof who was one of the stockholders of the corporation whose charter has been or may have been forfeited, as herein provided, the charter of said corporation, one of whose stockholders is as last named, shall therefore be forfeited and revoked. Provided, that any person who may be denied the right to become a stockholder as above prescribed may be granted the right to become such stockholder by the corporation commission, when such person shows to such commission that he was not a party to the former violation of this act.

SEC. 9. No pipe lines for the transportation or transmission of natural gas shall be laid upon private or public property when the purpose of such line is to transport or transmit gas for sale to the public until the same is properly inspected as provided in this act; and before any gas pipe line company shall furnish or sell gas to the public, it shall secure from the inspector a certificate showing that said line is laid and constructed in accordance with this act, and under the inspection of the proper officer, provided that nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent persons drilling for oil and gas from laying surface

In No. 857 the Marnet Mining Company, a corporation of West Virginia, is complainant. For the purpose of transporting from the producers of gas in the State of Oklahoma to purchasers and consumers in Kansas and Missouri, it has purchased a right of way over certain lands in the State, and proposes to construct a system of pipe lines to be used exclusively in such interstate transportation, and not in any way for local traffic.

In No. 858 A. W. Lewis, a citizen and resident of the State of Ohio, is complainant. He is the owner of an oil and gas lease by which he has acquired the right to construct wells on a certain tract of land in Oklahoma, and to take gas therefrom for the period of fifteen years. He has constructed a well, in accordance with his lease, which lines to transport or transmit gas to wells which are being drilled within this State and further provided, that factories in this State may transport or transmit gas through pipe lines for their own use for factories located wholly within this State, upon securing the right of way from the State over or along the highways and from property owners to their lands.

SEC. 10. That no person, firm or association or corporation shall ever be permitted to transmit or transport natural gas by pipe lines in this State or in this State construct or operate a pipe line for the transmission of natural gas, except such persons, firms, associations, or corporations be incorporated as in this act provided, except as in section 9 of this act, and provided further that all persons, firms, corporations, associations, and institutions now doing the business of transporting or transmission of natural gas in this State and otherwise complying with this act are hereby permitted to incorporate under the provisions of this act within ten days after the passage and approval of the same.

SEC. 11. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

SEC. 12. An existing emergency is hereby declared by the legislature for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety of the State.

SEC. 13. This act shall take effect from and after its passage and approval as provided by law.

Approved December 21, 1907.

is capable of producing many millions of cubic feet of gas per day, which, being in excess of the local demand, he is unable to sell in the State; and he alleges that, being prevented from transporting it from the State, he has suffered great loss and damage and is deprived of his property without compensation.

In No. 859 O. A. Bleakley, a citizen and resident of Pennsylvania, is complainant. He has received from the Secretary of the Interior a right of way over the land of certain Indians over a designated route, paying to the Indian Agent, by law and the rules and regulations of the Interior Department, the value of such right of way and the damages which the owners of the land over which he will pass for the laying and maintaining of a pipe-line for the exclusive purpose of transporting natural gas from Oklahoma to Kansas.

It is alleged in the bills that a great number of wells have been drilled in the State at great expense which are capable of producing more than 1,000,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day, that such amount is more than necessary for the demands of the people of the State, and the excess of supply is required to meet the wants of those residing in Missouri and Kansas. This want, it is alleged, may be supplied through the distributing plants now constructed and those contemplated by complainants, but that under the present conditions the owners are required to cease development work and to keep large and valuable wells capped and inoperative, to their great injury and damage. It is alleged that in constructing lines for such transportation it will not be necessary to go along the highways of the State, but only across or over them, and that the lines to be constructed will be private lines, will endanger the lives and property of no one, and will be constructed in just conformity with all reasonable rules and regulations of the State.

It is averred that each of the defendants is charged, by