The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-14
Officially DisapprOves Plans to
Pipe Out Gas.
TECHNICAL OBJECTION
Company Did Not Make Proper
Showing of Assets.
Mr. Mackey Said He Would Sell
Gas in Topeka at , 3 Cents.

Natural Gas & oil company to do
business in Kansas. This is the al
legged pipe line combine which the
people of the gas belt were afraid
would pipe gas out of Kansas to Kan
sas City and other places in Missouri,
giving those places the benefit of
cheap fuel and exhausting the Kansas
gas fields. The company is chartered
for S12,OOO.OOO.
The ground on which the applica-
tion is rejected is that the company
did not make the proper showing OF
assets There were about thirty-five
representative citizens from all the
gas belt towns present at the hearing
to protest against admitting the COM
pany to the state. Hugh Farrelly, of
Chanute, was their spokesman. The
gas company was represented by j. h
Gu ubbisOn of Kansas City, kas., j. }.
Jones, Il Chanute attorney, and
Eugene Mackey, a Pennsylvania at
torney who is general counsel for the
proposed combine.
The representatives of the gas com
pany say they are by no means defeat
ed They viii undoubtedly take other
steps to get into the state It is pos
sible that they may mandamus the
charter board to grant them authority
to do business in Kansas. 1t is also re-
ported that they will go ahead and ar
the Kansas officials in the federal
courts from interfering with them
According to the companys showing
it's assets thus far are oil and gas
leases amounting to So, $50, 00O,lands to the
value of $50 600, and $4,000 in cash,
total of four million dollars About
third of this was included in the hold
ings of the independence Gas company,
which the Kansas Na$lIral Gas and Oil
company claims to have purchased
This brought out a statement from
some of these present that the Kansas
Natural Gas company does not yet OWE
the property of the Independence Gas
company. A deal is on foot whereby
the Independence property can be
bought for S52S 900, but the papers are
in escrow and the deal may never be
consumnated. The opponents of the
company claimed that this price shows
the value of Independence property in
stead of the one and a half millions at
which it is listed in the company as
sets.
The company claims to have leases
on So, ,S01 acres of land and that it VIII
soon have nearly a hundred thousand
acres mere, but the gas belt people say
that $4,000 acres of this land in Ander-
son county may not have particle of
gas on it. and that much of the balance
is in other regions where the leases
may have no value whatever.
The company claims to have suth-
cient gas wells bottled up to produce
200. 100000 cubic feet of gas day. be
sides 26 oil wells with d production of
400 barrels of oil a day. Some papers
and afidavits that We're filed at the
time the LayOn Zinc Smelter company
was admitted several years ago, were
introduced. In these affidavits were
statement that gas production O1
1872 600 600 a day is worth at least
four million dollars. so the company
attorneys argued that their gas wells
are worth far more than they are listed
at to say nothing of the oil wells.
J. J. Jones, the Chanute attorney
for the company. argued that this gas
production, if properly marketed would
bring at least $4,000 day, or more
than a million dollars 2. month. Jones
also claimed that some of the men VINO
are now opposing the admission of the
company into Kansas have sold it some
of the leases it holds and are now try
ing to keep it from utilizing them. He
said r n. Allen had sold the company
one lease for $500. Mayor Kennedy
had sold James O Neil one of the COM
pany's stockholders. lease for Sl0oo'
and Hugh Farrelly was interested IN
other leases which had been sold to
O'Neil for $500.
O'Neil lives at Webb City, Mo, and
he has been buying up gas wells for
months. It is said that he owns S4,-
100000 of the stock in the new COM
bine. Only one man owns more. He
is Theodore n. Barnsdall, of Pitts
burg Pa. who is said to have S5,0O0,
600 OF the combines stock.
Eugene Mackey. of Pittsburg,
Barnsdau's attorney and general
counsel for the company, made
speech to the charter board, but he
did his cause more harm than good.
He was very oratOrical. insisted sew
eral times over that he was talking
as an honest man to three honest
men. and then told how the gas in
Pennsylvania fields had been wasted
and exhausted in a compare lively
short time He argued that because
the gas belt people are wasting the
gas it ought to be piped out and
company not to attempt to pipe the
gas out of Kansas. but that it would
be piped to Topeka
"At the present price of COAL he
said, you could easily afford to pay
so cents a thousand for natural gas
in Topeka We will furnish it to you
for half that We will give it to you
for % cents a thousand. Yet down
there in the gas belt some of those
brick companies are getting gas for
as low as one cent a thousand. I have
shed tears when / have seen how thew
are wasting the gas down there. 1 am
not only in favor of keeping Kansas
gas for Kansas. but I am in favor of
keeping Kansas gas for Kansas
homes. 1t ought not to be used for
manufacturing purposes"
When all the arguments were in it
did not take the charter board long
to decide the question. Secretary of
cation be rejected. Bank Commits
sioner AIbaugh seconded it. Attorney
General Coleman, who is chairman of
the board, put the question and de-
clared it carried ''by majority of the
board" Mr.. Coleman did not vote a
II is pretty certain that this hear
- Sc aF11x inn