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and was largely interested in the Tide Water Pipe Co., thereby making itself master of the only practicable oil transportation between the oil fields east of California and the Atlantic Ocean, and by reason of which it was able to and did carry much the greater part of the oil between these points.

United States v. Ohio Oil Co., 234 U. S. 548.

2. CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF AMENDMENT.

The words of this amendatory act in reference to persons and corporations "who shall be considered and held to be common carriers within the meaning and purpose of this act" are not intended to cut down the generality of the previous declaration to the meaning that only those shall be held common carriers within the act who were common carriers in a technical sense, but the words amount to a declaration that the persons or corporations in control of pipe lines and engaged in the transportation of oil shall be dealt with as such.

United States v. Ohio Oil Co., 234 U. S. 548.

The provisions of this amendatory act apply to any person engaged in the transportation of oil by means of pipe lines.

United States v. Ohio Oil Co., 234 U. S. 548.

3. TRANSPORTATION OF OIL-INTERSTATE COMMERCE.

The transportation of oil through pipe lines by the Standard Oil Co. and the companies controlled by it and its various subsidiaries is commerce among the states; and the fact that the oil transported belonged to the owner of the pipe line is not conclusive against the transportation being such commerce.

United States v. Ohio Oil Co. 234 U. S. 548.

4. PIPE-LINE OWNERS AS COMMON CARRIERS-VALIDITY OF AMEND

MENT.

The effect of this amendment is to change the nature and quality of business of pipeline owners from private to public, by requiring them to share with others the facilities that they have provided for themselves alone and to employ all such facilities in the service of the public; and this must be held something essentially different from and quite beyond the power delegated to Congress to regulate commerce between the States, and a law that in intention and result deprives the owners of private property of its exclusive enjoyment and compels the devotion of such property to public use is invalid, and in contravention of the fifth amendment to the Constitution. Prairie Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 204 Fed. 798, p. 809.

Congress intended by this amendment to make common carriers of the owners of private pipe lines, who were not common carriers, and who used the respective pipe lines solely for the transportation of their own oil in carrying on their private business, and make such owners subject to the provisions of the original act, and the amendment as applied to such private owners is held to be void for the reason that it deprived them of their property without due process of law, by depriving them of the beneficial use and enjoyment of their property.

Prairie Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 204 Fed. 798, p. 806.

United States v. Ohio Oil Co., 234 Sup. Ct. 548.

This amendatory act is a valid exercise of constitutional power, without doubt, as applied to future pipe lines, and prescribes the conditions upon which they may be used; and it seems equally clear that it is constitutional as to existing pipe lines that are common carriers now in everything but form, where they carry everybody's oil

to market, although they compel outsiders to sell to them before taking it into their pipes; and as applied to present operators and pipe lines the statute practically means no more than that they must give up requiring a sale to themselves before carrying the oil that they now receive.

United States v. Ohio Oil Co., 234 U. S. 548.

The force of this amendatory act is not such that it compels the owners of pipe lines to continue in operation, but it does require them not to continue except as common carriers, and its purpose was to bring within its scope, pipe lines that, although not technically common carriers, were carrying oil offered for transportation if the offerers would sell their oil at prices named by the combination.

United States v. Ohio Oil Co., 234 U. S. 548.

5. OWNERSHIP OF PIPE LINES-NATURE AND RIGHTS.

See 33 Stat. 65, p. 1069.

The fact that the ownership and possession of a pipe line enables its owner to transport his oil to a refinery or other market at small cost compared with other means of conveyance, and that other producers find it to their interest to sell the output of their wells to the owners of the pipe line, and conceding that the pipe line gives its owner such command that he is able to control or even fix the selling price of crude oil in a particular field or territory, does not imply that other producers are deprived of anything which rightfully belongs to them because they did not or can not provide themselves with the same means of reaching the market.

Prairie Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 204 Fed. 798, p. 816.

The necessary or natural operation of the intent and meaning of this statute impairs and measureably destroys rights of ownership and use which the Constitution protects from invasion and accomplishes inevitably a taking of property within the meaning and intent of the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

Prairie Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 204 Fed. 798, p. 817.

6. PRIVATE PIPE-LINE OWNERS UNAFFECTED.

The effect of this amendment is to compel the owner of a private pipe line, built upon private right of way and used solely for the transportation of his own oil to open and extend its use to whomsoever may desire its enjoyment, no matter with what resulting inconvenience and injury to himself.

Prairie Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 204 Fed. 798, p. 807.

Congress has no power to compel a private pipe-line owner to become a common carrier of oil merely because his pipe line crosses or is laid along public highways. Prairie Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 204 Fed. 798, p. 819.

Private pipe lines separately owned by dealers in oil or refiners, and used by them in the private business in which each is separately engaged, can not be termed a monopoly for the purpose of upholding the validity of this amendment.

Prairie Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 204 Fed. 798, p. 815.

The fact that pipe-line companies organized as common carriers in the State of their incorporation does not make them common carriers of oil in other States, where in such States the lines were laid and operated on private rights of way, and where the laws of such State did not require them to transport oil as common carriers.

Prairie Oil & Gas Co. v. United States, 204 Fed. 798, p. 820.

An oil company operating a refinery in one State and oil wells in an adjoining State, with a pipe line connecting the two, and using such pipe line for the sole purpose of

conducting oil from its own wells to its own refinery, is not engaged in the transportation of oil within the meaning of this amendatory act, and is not a common carrier within the meaning of the provisions of the act.

United States v. Ohio Oil Co., 234 U. S. 548.

36 STAT. 296, APRIL 12, 1910.

RIGHT OF WAY-OIL AND GAS-ARKANSAS.

AN ACT To grant right of way over the public domain in the State of Arkansas for oil or gas pipe lines.

Be it enacted, etc., That a right of way through the public lands of the United States in the State of Arkansas is hereby granted for pipe-line purposes to any citizen of the United States or any company or corporation authorized by its charter to transport oil, crude or refined, or natural gas which shall have filed or may hereafter file with the Secretary of the Interior a copy of its articles of incorporation, and due proof of organization under the same, to the extent of the ground occupied by the said pipe line and 10 feet on each side of the center line of same.

SEC. 2. That any citizen of the United States, company, or corporation desiring to secure the benefits of this act shall within 12 months after the location of 10 miles of the pipe line, if the same be upon surveyed land, and if the same be upon unsurveyed lands within 12 months after the survey thereof by the United States, file with the register of the land office for the district where such land is located a map of its lines, and upon the approval thereof by the Secretary of the Interior, the same shall be noted upon the plats in said office, and thereafter all such land over which such line shall pass shall be disposed of subject to such right of way.

SEC. 3. That nothing in this act shall authorize the use of such right of way except for the pipe line, and then only so far as may be necessary for its construction, maintenance, and care.

SEC. 4. That if any section of said pipe line shall not be completed within one year after the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of said section, or if any section of said pipe line shall be abandoned or shall not be used for a period of two years, the right of way herein granted as to any uncompleted, abandoned, or unused section of said pipe line shall be forfeited to the extent that the same is not completed or is abandoned or unused at the date of the forfeiture, without further action or declaration on the part of the Government or any proceedings or judgment of any court.

SEC. 5. That if any citizen, company, or corporation taking advantage of the benefits of this act shall violate the act of July 2, 1890, entitled "An act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies" (commonly known as the Sherman antitrust act), or any amendment thereof, the right of way herein granted shall be forfeited without further action or declaration on the part of the Government or any proceedings or judgment any court.

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PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS.

9 STAT. 631, MARCH 3, 1851.

CALIFORNIA-COMMISSION TO SETTLE.

AN ACT To ascertain and settle the private land claims in the State of California.

Be it enacted, etc., That for the purpose of ascertaining and settling private land claims in the State of California, a commission shall be, and is hereby, constituted, which shall consist of three commissioners, to be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, which commission shall continue for three years from the date of this act, unless sooner discontinued by the President of the United States.

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SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That each and every person claiming lands in California by virtue of any right or title derived from the Spanish or Mexican Government, shall present the same to the said commissioners when sitting as a board, together with ́such documentary evidence and testimony of witnesses as the said claimant relies upon in support of such claims; and it shall be the duty of the commissioners, when the case is ready for hearing, to proceed promptly to examine the same upon such evidence, and the evidence produced in behalf of the United States, and to decide upon the validity of the said claim, and, within 30 days after such decision is rendered, to certify the same, with the reasons on which it is founded, to the district attorney of the United States in and for the district in which such decision shall be rendered.

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SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That all lands, the claims to which have been finally rejected by the commissioners in manner herein provided, or which shall be finally decided to be invalid by the district or Supreme Court, and all lands the claim to which shall not have been presented to the said commissioners within two years after the date of this act, shall be deemed, held, and considered as part of the public domain of the United States; and for all claims finally confirmed by the said commissioners, or by the said district or Supreme Court, a patent shall issue to the claimant upon his presenting to the General Land Office an authentic certificate of such confirmation, and a plat or survey of the said land, duly certified and approved by the surveyor general of California, whose duty it shall be to cause all private claims which shall be finally confirmed to be accurately surveyed, and to furnish plats of the same.

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SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of this act shall not extend to any town lot, farm lot, or pasture lot, held under a grant from any corporation or town to which lands may have been

granted for the establishment of a town by the Spanish or Mexican Government, or the lawful authorities thereof, nor to any city, or town, or village lot, which city, town, or village existed on the 7th day of July, 1846; but the claim for the same shall be presented by the corporate authorities of the said town, or where the land on which the said city, town, or village was originally granted to an individual, the claim shall be presented by or in the name of such individual, and the fact of the existence of the said city, town, or village on the said 7th July, 1846, being duly proved, shall be prima facie evidence of a grant to such corporation or to the individual under whom the said lotholders claim; and where any city, town, or village shall be in existence at the time of passing this act, the claim for the land embraced within the limits of the same may be made by the corporate authority of the said city, town, or village. *

A. PURPOSE OF ACT.

B. MINERALS PASSED TO UNITED STATES.

A. PURPOSE OF ACT.

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The object of this act is to ascertain and settle or establish private land claims in California, and it does nor restrict the operation of patents issued, and such a patent passes to the patentee all interest of the United States and invests the patentee with the ownership of the precious metals which the land may contain.

Moore v. Smaw, 17 Cal. 199, p. 223.

B. MINERALS PASSED TO UNITED STATES.

The gold and silver which passed by the cession from Mexico were not held by the United States in trust for the future State and the ownership of them is not an incident of any right of sovereignty, and such minerals were held by the United States in the same manner as they held any other public property which they acquired from Mexico. Moore v. Smaw, 17 Cal. 199, p. 223.

12 STAT. 71, JUNE 21, 1860.

NEW MEXICO-CONFIRMATION OF PRIVATE CLAIMS.

AN ACT To confirm certain private land claims in the Territory of New Mexico.

Be it enacted, etc., That the private land claims in the Territory of New Mexico, as recommended for confirmation by the surveyor general of that Territory, and in his letter to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, of the 12th of January, 1858, designated as Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, and the claim of E. W. Eaton, not entered on the corrected list of numbers, but standing on the original docket and abstract returns of the surveyor general as No. 16, be, and they are hereby, confirmed: * * *

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the heirs of Luis Maria Baca, who make claim to the said tract of land as is claimed by the town of Las Vegas, to select instead of the land claimed by them, an equal quantity of vacant land, not mineral, in the Territory of New Mexico, to be located by them in square bodies, not exceeding five in number.

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