Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-02-12
PINE BLUFF IN
 GAS CIRCUIT Corporation Which Failed to Secure Little Rock Franchise Controls.
so SAYS L. B. DENYING
Also Says the Work on the Pipe Line Will Be Commenced in
 the Near Future.

Little Rock, Feb. ll.-lnStedu oI having been put out of business by it's failure to secure the franchise which it sought in Little Rock, the Arkansas Natural Gas Company holds the key to the situation and will supply whatev- CT gas is consumed in Little Rock and other cities in Arkansas, according to a declaration made last night by l.. B. Denning, attorney for the Arkansas company, who was in the city en- route to Pittsburg from Benton, where he closed negotiations for gas franchise yesterday.
 The statement made by Mir. Denning throws an entirely new light on the natural gas situation in Arkansas, and explains the apparent unconcern with which the representatives of the natural gas company accepted their defeat by the Dawes interests in the contest for a franchise in this city. There has apparently been no active 
 motors at any stage of the proceed ings.
 A short time after the franchise was granted to the Pulaski Gas Light Com pany, which is controlled by the Dawes interests, B. G. Dawes, who conducted the negotiations here an- fhof hi in ofi hGpn effected with the Arkansas Natural Gas Company, which gave them con- trol of the largest holdings in the Caddo gas field.
 Says They Control Field.
 ''This agreement could hardly be called combinations Mir. Denning declared last night. Financial inter- ests with which MT. Dawes is asso- ciated have subscribed to a block of bonds of the Arkansas Natural Gas Company, and our company has in turn purchased all the holdings of Mir. Dawes and his associates in the Cad do field The result is that we control
 
 any company which supplies gas to Little Rock or other cities in Arkan- sas will have to buy it's supply from us. The Arkansas Natural Gas Con- pany will build the pipe line from the Caddo field and the gas will be distrl- buted in the various cities by other ;,I In + the distribution will be made by the Pulaski Gas Light Company which secured the franchise for Little Rock. In other cities the gas will be distri- buted by separate companies which will take over the franchises which have already been secured. In Ar kansas it is illegal for the same com pany to own the pipe line and the dis tributing systems.
 ''The Arkansas Natural Gas Con- pany, which was formed about year ago, taking over the interests of sev- eral other companies, now controls 250,O00 acres of gas lands in the Cad do field and now has enough produc- ing wells to supply this entire terri tory for fifty years. In fact the Busch-Everett syndicate of St. Louis is the only other company that has any holdings of consequence in the Caddo field"
 Says Work is to Begin Soon.
 Mr. Denning states that while he cannot speak authoratively regarding the financial end of the proposition he feels confident that the pipe line will be completed from the gas field to Little Rock by the first of next year. He declares that active prepar- ations are now being made and that the construction work will be begun within a short time.
 MT. Denning stated that he did not know who would compose the party which it has been reported will visit Arkansas and the Caddo field in a private car as the guests of the Ar kansas Natural Gas Company, but that he presumes the trip has to do with the arrangements for financing the proposition.
 MT. Denning threw some light or the previous relations of the Dawes interests and the Arkansas company by stating that the mysterious strang- CT who accompanied the party which went from Little Rock to the Caddo field as the guest of Mir. Dawes and who, 1t was later disclosed, was a representative of the Arkansas com. pany. was present upon the invitation of MT. Dawes himself:
 Nr. Denning stated last night thai he has now secured franchises a'