Oklahoma Oil

The Oklahoma State Corporation Commission last week played its part towards restricting the overproduction of crude oil (TIME, July 18) by issuing a temporary order forbidding the drilling in of new oil wells or the shooting* of old ones in certain districts of the state. The peg for the order was the commission's belief that it was empowered to conserve the state's natural resources. Gypsy Oil Co./- considered that peg too frail; protested at once that the order was unconstitutional because it deprived the company of enjoying the fruits of oil production, because it was discriminatory, because it took property without due process of law. The courts may be called to judgment.

* Frequently, when an oil well seems exhausted, oil men enliven it by exploding a charge of nitroglycerin in its depths. tA subsidiary of the Mellon family's Gulf Oil Co. William Larimer Mellon is president of Gulf Oil, chairman of Gypsy Oil.