The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-08-12
NEXT, SAY TRUSTS
After State Binding Twine
Plant, Says Senator Porter.
Move May Be Made by Holding
Up Bills.
HE SEES A LOOPHOLE.
Employment of COnvicts Not
Mentioned in Bill.
Not Worrying About Loss of
the Refinery Law.
HE SEES A LOOPHOLE

| Senator Samuel Porter, father" of
the defunct state oil refinery project,
thinks that plot is being fixed up for
the purpose of putting the state bind
| ing twine plant out of business.
! "It has been intimated to me from
| two or three Sources" said Senator
Porter yesterday to a State Journal
reporter, "that a move is soon to be
made which will have for its object
the suppression of the binding twine
plant. I am unable to say how it is
proposed to accomplish this; it might
be done by the refusal of the auditor
to allow bills for the maintenance of
the plant"
Senator Porter thinks that since the
supreme court has taken the position
it has on the oil refinery proposition,
it might adopt a similar attitude to-
ward the state binding twine plant.
The act providing for the state bind
ing twine plant is entitled "An act to
provide for the erection and mainten-
ance of a hard fiber twine plant at
the Kansas state penitentiary at Lam
sing, Kansas, and making appropria-
tions therefor" The bill does not
even say that the binding twine plant
is to furnish employment for convicts.
1t simply says that $4,000 is appro-
priated to build the twine plant, and
$4,000 more is a revolving fund.
Attorney General Coleman is out of
town, and hence no opinion could be
obtained from him on the probable
validity of the act. Assistant Attorney
General West said: 1t is an interest
ing point. From the title of the bill it
does not seem that there is much
doubt what the legislature wanted
to do.''
However, Mr.. Porter seems to have
lost some of his original enthusiasm
about the state oil refinery project He
admitted yesterday that the oil re-
finery would not have had a great
effect on the oil situation.
''Will an effort be made at the next
session of the legislature to re-enact
the state oil refinery law in some
form ?'' was asked
THAT depends upon existing condi-
tions at that time" said Mr. Porter.
s'I think it would be possible to put the
project in such shape that the supreme
court would sustain it, but you can
never tell much about what a court
will do. We might go ahead and To-
cate a branch penitentiary down there,
and say nothing about the oil refinery,
and then when the penitentiary is
built, simply put the convicts down
there and set them to work refining
OIL
81 was not so very much surprised"
continued Mr.. Porter. "at the action
of the supreme court on the oil re-
finery law. I realized that we were up
against very strict provision of the
constitution, and that it would be easy
for the court to interpret the constitu-
ton against us. Still, I believe that
nine out of ten people in Kansas want
ed the oil refinery, and still want it.
State Has Not Lost Much.
ST believe that so far as practical
results are concerned, the state has
not lost much by the failure of the
project. The only advantage which
would have come from the state oil
refinery would have been a diffusion
of public knowledge concerning the
cost of refining oil. We would know
what relation should exist between the
cost of crude oil and the cost of re-
fined oil. But otherwise, I think the
have been unimportant.
Suppose that the refinery had been
built, and had been able to handle
even as much as 1000 barrels of crude
oil day. The production of the Kan
sas field in its present state of develop
ment is rs to 80 thousand barrels a
day, and the territory field almost as
states purchase of 1000 barrels a day
have had on the value of crude oil?
The states competition would have
been so slight that the producers of oil
would have derived little or no benefit.
1.-The plain fact of the case is that
Kansas was producing so much oil that
there was no place to dispose of it.
This Kansas and territory field is the
greatest oil field the country ever saw.
The Standard Oil company continues
to increase its storage capacity, and it
has its pipe line completed clear from
the Kansas field to the Atlantic sea-