OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE C ~ ~ I S S I O N EORF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 113 August 6, 1901, and October 7, 1901, maps of location of a portion of the line from Tulsa to Sapulpa, Creek Nation, were approved. October 16, 1901, application was filed for permission to operate a telephone exchange at Tulsa. Accompanying it was a copy of the decree of the court of appeals in the Indian Territory in the caJe of the Muskogee National Telephone Company, appellant, u. R. H. Hall and G. W. Pitman. In the case before the court it was shown that the appellant, on the 7th of December, 1897, procured from the Creek I Nation, through iits council, a charter granting to it the exclusive right of erecting and operating telephone lines within the Creek Nation for a period which, by the articles of incorporation, was fixed at ten years. The company proceeded to erect and maintain its lines at a number of places in that Nation, but none at Tulsa. On the 5th of June, 1899, after the passage of the CurtisAct, the town of Tulsa, having been duly incorporated under that act, granted to the appellees, R. H. Hall and G. W. Pitman, the right toconstruct and operate a telephone system in that town. The appellees also pro-cured from thii office, October 5,1899, by the authority of the Depart-ment, permission to establish and operate a system of telephone exchange there. The suit was brought in equity by the appellant to enjoin the appel-lees from proceeding to erect and operate their telephone plant at Tulsa, and the court decreed in favor of the appellees; the action was duly excepted to and the case regularly appealed to the United States court of appeals in the Indian Territory. Tbe opinion of the court is, first, that the act of the Creek conncil incorporating and granting an exclusive franchise to the plaintiff cor-poration to erect and opemte a telephone system in the Creek Nation is in conflict with the interstate-commerce clause of the Constitution of the Unikd States in so far as it relates to foreign or interstate busi-ness; second, that the Creek act was constitutional and valid in so far as it granted an exclusive franchise to the corporation to conduct its business for the period of ten years locally within the Creek Nation; third, that the contract of defendants with the town of Tulsa and the 1 permission of the Interior Department granted to the defendant no rights as against plaintifis; fonrth, that the act of March 3, 1901, divested from the Creek Nation and conferred upon the Secretary of the Interior all official and governmental control over all telephone and telegraph lincs in the Indian Territory, whether local or inter-state, from the passage of the act, and that the ctct is constitutional, and therefore all franchises for the erection and operation of tele-phone and telegraph lines granted by the Creek Nation are now, and since the passage of that act have been, nugatory and void, leaving the plaintiff corporation without any right, title, or standing at this time in court, although at the bringing of the suit they were entitled to their order of iniunction. |