Page:Department of Public Utilities v. Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co.pdf/18

 hypothetical supply first pumped into the mains in anticipation of continued demands in Little Rock might never reach its destination, but on the contrary would remain in the storage facilities to be gradually consumed along the line.

Decisions of state and federal courts are called to our attention, and they Are urged as authority for a desired construction. Many of these decisions appear conflicting, and the reasoning in one does not support the conclusions of another. But through most of them runs the general principle promulgated by Chief Justice TAFT, whose theory it was that "Determination of the character of commerce is a matter of weighing the whole group of facts in respect to it. Commerce among the states is not a technical legal conception, but a practical one drawn from the course of business."

The conception to be drawn from the course of appellee's business is that it has developed a practical system whereby, if let alone, more than half of its sales in Arkansas will escape regulation by the state, while at the same time the physical facilities of the state, its resources, its laws and its police protection, are invoked in furtherance of its needs.

The cause is reversed with directions that respondent–appellee's petition for review be overruled, and that General Order No. 13 of the Department of Public Utilities be complied with by appellee.