Chapter 129. To authorize the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company to construct and maintain lines and offices for general business purposes in the Ponca, Otoe, and Missouria Reservation, in the Territory of Oklahoma
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CHAP. 129.— An Act To authorize the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company to construct and maintain lines and offices for general business purposes in the Ponca, Otoe, and Missouria Reservation, in the Territory of Oklahoma. February 9, 1899. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, * Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company may construct lines, etc., in Ponca, etc., Reservations, Okla. That the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company is hereby authorized and empowered to construct and maintain telephone lines and offices for general telephone business in the Ponca, Otoe, and Missouria Reservation in the Territory of Oklahoma, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior and upon the terms and conditions hereinafter prescribed.
Sec. 2. Annual rental. That said company shall pay to the nation or tribe through which it extends its telephone lines, in whole or in part, annually, five dollars for each ten miles of said line so constructed and maintained. Sec. 3. Consentto construction on improvements. That before said telephone line shall be constructed under the provisions of this Act consent shall be obtained from all persons in the lawful possession of improvements authorizing said construction Damages.upon such improvements; and if the right to construct any such line can not be obtained by agreement, then the amount of damages shall be determined by arbitration, one arbitrator to be selected by the company and one by the owner of the improvements, and if they fail to agree they shall select a third person, and the award so made shall *Proviso.*Appeal, etc.be binding upon the parties thereto: *Provided,* That either party dissatisfied with such award may appeal therefrom, within twenty days, to the United States court exercising jurisdiction over the tribe or nation in which such improvements are situated by filing an original petition in said court exhibiting the findings of said board, and upon the final hearing of said petition the court or jury trying the same shall assess the actual damage caused by the construction of said line.
The company shall not begin the construction of said telephone line upon the improvements of another without his consent, or until the board of arbitrators herein provided for shall have made an award of the damages and the company shall have paid or tendered in payment the amount of such award. Sec. 4. Taxes. That nothing herein shall be construed as exempting said telephone company from the payment of any tax which may be law Tolls.fully assessed against such company; and Congress hereby expressly reserves the right to regulate the tolls or charges of any lines constructed under the provisions of this Act.
Approved, February 9, 1899.