Joseph McKenna

“ And yet we have said that 'in matters of foreign and interstate commerce there are no state lines.' In such commerce, instead of the states, a new power appears and a new welfare,-a welfare which transcends that of any state. ”

“ Interstate commerce in natural gas is absolutely prevented,-prohibited, in effect, for we think it is undoubted that pipe lines are the only practical means of gas transportation, and to prohibit interstate commerce is more than to indirectly affect it. ”

“ In the case of natural gas, only the surface proprietors had such power, and the distinction, it was said, marked the difference in the extent of the state's control. 'In the one, as the public are the owners, everyone may be absolutely prevented from seeking to reduce to possession. No devesting of private property, under such a condition, can be conceived, because the public are the owners, and the enactment by the state of a law as to the public ownership is but the discharge of the governmental trust resting in the state as to property of that character. ”

“ Gas, when reduced to possession, is a commodity; it belongs to the owner of the land; and, when reduced to possession, is his individual property, subject to sale by him, and may be a subject of intrastate commerce and interstate commerce. The statute of Oklahoma recognizes it to be a subject of intrastate commerce, but seeks to prohibit it from being the subject of interstate commerce, and this is the purpose of its conservation. In other words, the purpose of its conservation is in a sense commercial, the business welfare of the state, as coal might be, or timber. ”

“ Certain cities of the states, which, by reason of their proximity to the gas field, should be supplied with gas, are not now supplied with it, and will never be if complainants are allowed to transport it from Oklahoma without regulation by laws of the state, and the population of the state is now 1,750,000, and is growing more rapidly than that of any other state in the Union. ”

“ Natural gas is as much a commodity as iron ore, coal, or petroleum or other products of the earth, and can be transported, bought, and sold as other products. (2) It is not a commercial product when it is in the earth, but becomes so when brought to the surface and placed in pipes for transportation. ”

“ This limitation upon the surface owners of property was justified by the peculiar character of gas and oil, they having the power of self-transmission, and that therefore to preserve an equal right in all surface owners there could not be an unlimited right in any. Gas and oil were likened to, not made identical with, animals feroe naturoe, and, like such animals, were subject to appropriation by the owners of the soil, but also, like them, did not become property until reduced to actual possession. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nor can a new corporation be formed if even one of its stockholders was a stockholder of an offending corporation.
To such stringent subjection foreign corporations could not be brought, so they are absolutely excluded from the state by the following provision: 'Sec. 3. ”