The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-06
THE LAWS MUST BE ENFORCED
CEAsELEss VIGILANCE USED TO EX.
TEND LIFE OF THE FIELD.
Tests VIII Be Made of Some of the
State Laws-WOrk Hitherto Done
by MIR. Leach Is Commended.
,scial 70 the indianapolis Journal.

Special to the Indianapolis Journal
ANDERSON, Ind, Nov. Sat large
and enthusiastic meeting Of gas belt manu-
facturers held here this afternoon the de-
cisiOn was reached to begin at once the
| raising of fund with which to enable
Gas Supervisor Leach to employ four ad-
ditional deputies to detect and put a stop
to the waste of natural gas. About twenty
prominent factory owners and officials at
| tended the meeting and there was a marked
unanimity of sentiment on the main propo-
| sition before the body, which was to devise
ways and means to prevent further waste
of the natural fuel.
| The plan agreed upon, in brief, is to get
| together a fund of not less than $1,000
which shall be at the disposal Of the super
| visor, subject to reasonable restrictions
| imposed by the executive committee The
committee is made up of S. j. Mack of the
| American Plate Glass Company, Alexan-
dria, chairman; ]. p. Kelly, of the Kelly
AK Company, Alexandria; f. c. Ball. of
the Ball Brothers Glass Company Muncie
George n. Catterson, secretary-treasurer
Matthews Land Company; John r. John
ston, Hartford City; Fred Stephenson, Of
the Marion Pulp Company, and Jacob
Loomis, of Elwood
| This committee, which is thoroughly rep
resentative of the prominent gas belt cities
and towns will hold 4 meeting at the Hotel
| Doxey in Anderson on Saturday night for
the purpose of drawing up a form of agree
ment. fixing the amount of the fund to be
raised, and selecting a treasurer of the
association. When the size of the fund
has been determined. assessments will be
1 10 mi mharG Of ha
in proportion to the benefits to be received
| by each member A member whose factory
is remote from the field will not be as
sessed high as one who is 'in the thick
of the fight" as Mr.. Catterson expressed it,
The factory men organized very soon
after arriving at the Hotel Doxey this
afternoon and selected John P. Kelly, of
Alexandria, as president and L. A. Won
Behren, of the Grant and Wabash Pipe
| Line Company, Marion, as secretary.
President Kelly stated the object of the
meeting to be to take steps looking to the
| prevention of gas waste. He said that UP
| to about two months ago 1t was asserted
| in Alexandria that it would be a waste of
| time and money to try to stop the waste
of gas by oil men, but they went ahead
nevertheless and engaged c. c. Matthews
as deputy supervisor to seek out cases
| of outrageous waste and prosecute the Of
| tenders. In this way, said Mr.. Kelly, much
| good has been accomplished He referred
to the conviction of Weir, of the Consum-
ers' Gas Trust Company, by a jury of
farmers at Anderson last week and added
| that they have two or three contempt cases
against employees of that company yet to
| be tried.
| CONTINUOUS WORK NECESSARY
Subscribe to a fund to employ inspectors
and attorneys by the year" said Mr.. Kel-
| ly, land let these wasters of natural gas
understand that the first head that bobs
up will be hit. There is a whole lot of gas
in the field yet, Mr.. Blatchley to the con-
| trary Notwithstanding"
Mr.. Kelly said he had received letters
| from about forty factory men promising
| their support to whatever plan might be
adopted at to-day's meeting and declaring
their readiness to subscribe to a fund to be
used in stopping the waste of gas.
Messrs. Catterson and Mack urged that
some action be taken toward preventing
gas from being piped out of the State. Mr..
Catterson said he has two suits against
the Chicago Pipe Line Company, one to
prevent it taking gas out of the State and
the other to test the 300-pound pressure
law. He expects to secure an injunction
against piping the gas from the State un-
der the law which provides that this can
not be done at a greater pressure than the
natural rock pressure. which is in no in
stance to exceed 800 pounds. The rock pres
sure, said Mr.. Catterson, nowhere goes
much above a hundred pounds, which
would scarcely suffice to give the gas a
fair start in the direction of the State line
He asserted that there is no doubt the
pipe line companies are using more than
800 pounds pressure, and cited an instance
in which telephone company drilling post
holes accidentally blasted into what en-
ployes of the Chicago Pipe Line Company
termed the ''5OO-pound line"
Mr.. Won Behren called attention to the
fact that considerable gas is wasted by
drawing salt water from the wells thus
leaving greater space in which the gas
may expand, consequently causing a de-
crease in the pressure
The effect of pumping stations was dis
cussed at length. Several factory men
said that it could be shown that when a
pumping station moved away the rock
pressure in few months came back TO a
high figure, a gentleman from Converse
saying that by the time the Chicago COM
pany's pumping station moved from that
place the pressure had gone down 10 about
seventy pounds, but that now it is 2lO
pounds
When the meeting had agreed upon the
plan of providing a fund 10 employ more
deputies Mr.. Matthews was asked for an
expression OF opinion as To the number
that would be needed. He said there ought
L. be four deputies furnished Mr.. Leach in
addition 10 the two he now has in his en-
ploy. Mr.. Matthews made vigorous talk
Ia favor OF enforcing every law on the
statute book that will help conserve nat
ural gas. He mentioned specifically the
nambeau and 3O0-pound pressure laws. He