JUDGE G. A. BROWN, SUPREME COURT, whose lamentable death occurred on Monday, October 25th, while engaged in the duties of his office, was in his sixty-seventh year. He was born on his father's farm in Washington County, Texas, on June 25th, 1849. At the age of nineteen with money he had himself earned, he entered school and by earnest efforts in two years completed a four years' course of study and was chosen valedictorian of his class. He studied law in the office of Throckmorton & Brown, the former an Ex-governor of Texas, and the latter was afterwards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of that State. Some years later he was married to Miss Adele Hart Davis of Denton, Texas, who survives him. Judge Brown was admitted to the bar at Sherman, Texas, in 1873, and was associated with Ex-governor Throckmorton in the practice of law in that city. In 1882, he moved to Donley County, Texas, and was appointed county judge of that county the same year. After two terms in office he resigned to devote his entire time to the practice of law. In 1889 he was chosen judge of the 44th Judicial District of Texas, to which office he was afterwards three times re-elected and held the position until 1903. The latter year, Judge Brown removed with his family to Mangum, Greer County, in this State. At the Oklahoma Statehood election in 1907, Judge Brown was elected Judge of the 18th Judicial District and re-elected to that office in November, 1910. During his term on the bench as District Judge, he tried many important cases in other districts where the local judges were disqualified. During his service as a district judge in Texas, he tried the celebrated case of the State of Texas vs. Rev. George E. Morrison, who was convicted and hanged in Vernon, Texas, in 1899, for poisoning his wife. In Oklahoma, the negroes, Alf Hunter and Ed Ellis who killed Sheriff W. G. Garrison, of Oklahoma County, were tried and convicted before Judge Brown in Blaine county. Ellis is serving a life sentence in the Oklahoma State Prison and Alf Hunter was hanged at Watonga, in 1910. Judge Brown also tried the celebrated cases of State of Oklahoma vs. Rudolph Tegeler, charged with the murder of James Meadows, and of the State vs. Mike O'Brien, charged with perjury committed while testifying as a witness for Tegeler in the trial of the latter's case. At the November, 1914, election, Judge Brown was elected Justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, to fill the unexpired term of Judge Jesse Dunn, and this position he was holding at the time of his death. He had been a member of the Baptist Church since he was sixteen years of age and was a member of the Masonic Order. Judge Brown was a man of striking personality and was distinguished for the uprightness of his private life, his high conception of legal ethics and the eminent value of his public services. Notwithstanding his age, he had been seriously and earnestly considered by a large number of friends as a most promising candidate of his party for the office of governor of the State at the next election. Vol. XIV OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA., OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER, 1915 ANNOUNCEMENT Subscribers and friends of the Law Journal will be pleased to learn that with this issue the Warden Company, one of the largest and most substantial printing and publishing institutions in Oklahoma, have acquired all the stock of the Oklahoma Law Journal Company, and will hereafter become the responsible publishers of this magazine. Chas. F. Barrett will remain as editor, and Mr. Fred Riesling, a newspaper man of ability, well and favorably known in all the departments of state and to the business and newspaper world of Oklahoma, becomes associate editor and manager of the publication. These changes not only add to the business importance and financial stability of the Journal, but materially increase its editorial efficiency and give to its management the actual, individual efforts which have heretofore been limited by the fact that its promoters were primarily engaged in other work, and were unable to give the Journal that No. 4 active, personal attention which its importance and continued improvement demand. The company organized to take over the Journal from the heirs of the late Mr. Fernandes, acquired the magazine very late in August, and the issue for that month and September were published nearly a month late in each instance. In order to "catch up" and have the Journal appear promptly on time the two numbers for October and November have been consolidated in this issue and hereafter the magazine will appear on time, and we hope greatly improved both in volume and subject-matter. The Warden Company succeeds to all accounts and will carry out all obligations of the Law Journal Publishing Company. Respectfully, OKLAHOMA LAW JOURNAL CHAS F. BARRETT, Publisher. THE GROSS PRODUCTION TAX DECISION The Journal takes pleasure in being able to reproduce this month the full text of the Supreme Court decision in the gross production case, a matter that involved several hundred thousand dollars of revenue to the state and the counties within the oil belt. It is unnecessary to observe that the court's unanimous decision that the law is 'constitutional was hailed with delight by thousands of taxpayers throughout the state, but there is some disappointment in administration circles that the court divided on the proposition of whether it was a property or occupation tax, and that the majority held to the proposition that it was an occupation tax. On this point it is understood that the Attorney General will ask for a re-hearing. The main point on trial in the case adjudicated was the constitutionality of the law and in this the decision is an overwhelming victory for the people and ends a fight that has raged since statehood, and one in which the state has always hitherto been worsted. The Oklahoma State Library Perhaps outside the legal profession, the courts, and a few special students, the public has a very inadequate conception of the volume and value of the state library. It is an institution of which the people of the state may well be proud when we consider the short period of time covered in its accumulation and the measure of results achieved. Day by day its store of books is augmented by exchange with all the states and territories of the Union, and recently a full set of English, Irish, and Scotch reports have been added to its stock; distant Australia, Siberia, and Luzon repose on its shelves in the shape of statutes, and reports of their highest courts. Switzerland, France, and Germany have their appointed places. "At midwinter in the year 1085, William the Conqueror wore his crown at Gloucester and there he had deep speech with his wise men." Domesday Book followed. The lore of Domesday and beyond is on the shelves of the library. Bracton, hoary with Saxon law is there. Fleta and Alfred the Great, Gilanvil, Magna Charta are there, and the great charter "Anno Mono Henrici III." "No freeman shall be imprisoned or disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs or be out lawed or exiled or otherwise destroyed * * * but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either justice or right." The student may there rock the ancient cradles of liberty and look within; the scroll of ages unrolls before his eyes; he can advance step by step, keep pace with the advance of human liberty as it is recorded in the books and reflected in the actions of men. The specialist will find the sum of human accomplishment in his particular line open for comparison, rejection, or adoption, for contrary to prevailing ideas, the library is far from being exclusively a law library; that of course is its distinctive feature, but the historian, the naturalist, the farmer, the carpenter, the engineer, the physician, the banker, the merchant, the manufacturer, in fact, men in every active department of life, as well as the lawyer, will find it a congenial and profitable field, not including the large stock of court reports on hand for sale by the state. The library houses about 50,000 volumes. The foregoing is intended to give some idea of the range and size of this department, its utility as a public benefit need not be argued or urged. There remains, however, to call atten tion to practical needs. First and fore- The One of the needs-the most imperative one, perhaps is a complete catalog. Much valuable material is not available because it can not be put in place and cataloged. This requirement will be met, however, in the next fiscal year, 1917, but cannot be completed until space for expansion is provided. Careful study has been given to the problem of making the library readily accessible, and during the month of August while most of the courts and many of the law |