The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1913-06-27
BUM MAKES REPLY.
l.RA.References Make Work More
Complete and Cost No More.

Complete and Cost No More
Clinton o. Bum, the attorney, ed
itor and annotator of the new stat
utes, when asked concerning the re-
port of the investigating committee
! said:
my contract required me to anno-
! tate twenty-seven volumes of Okla
homa Reports; four volumes of Okla
homa Criminal; the decisions of Kan
sas on civil practice prior to 1898,
and Dakota prior to 1890. Amy an
notatons which | placed in the stat,
ute, outside of those, represent graf
utous labor on my part, for which
the state las not paid one penny,
although the state is the beneficiary.
The only question the people are in
terested in, is, have performed my
contract? | fulfilled it to the letter.
No committee nor anyone who has in
vestigated the matter has said 9TH
erwise.
The judges of the supreme court
and criminal court of appeals, and
lawyers with whom | consulted, were
anxious that the annotatiOns should
be more extensive than my contract
called for The governor and state
board Of affairs refused to enter into
supplemental contract permitting
extra annotations. We were all zeal
Gus to make this the best statute pos
sible; ! having had several confer
ences with individual members of the
court. Finally | decided a more ex-
tensive annexation could be secured
without cost to the state by making
these l.. r. A. references. They
didn't cost the state a penny. They
greatly increase the value of the stat
Utes No one has to use them if he
dosen't want to. | placed them there
just as | exercised discretion to re-
fer to the California statute on pro-
bate to the annotated cases set, and
to thousands of Oklahoma annota-
tions which my contract did not re-
Quire me to do. No lawyer whose |
opinion is worth asking will say he |
wishes the l.. r. A. annotations were |
not i'm the statute. But | want i, |
clearly understood that / was not re-
quired by my contract to place them
there. and that it has been done with
out cost to the state
The value of these l.. r. A. refer
ences consists that each L. r. A. case
has a brief citing the lawyer to every
state which has passed on the ques-
ion. The committee does me an in
Justice when it states that references 1
,hould have been made to other re-
1orts. 1t should have known better H
These L. r. A. briefs are not print
I'd in any other book or reports The l
it'll eof the case possesses no merit
because a lawyer does not care for
he case; he wants the brief. II would
equlre lawyer a day or a week, or
possibly a month, to prepare any Of
he briefs in the l.. II. A. by this
'iece of gratuitOus labor on my uart,
he lawyers are referred to more than
0 600 cases. which my contract did
ot require me to refer to- Nha. is
here reprehensible about tb's7
out of the $500 paid NE, paid
. II. Harris $1S5O for work LIE did
or me under a sub contract
by my efforts, involving grauui-
Gus labor on my part, worth several
lousand dollars, this state has the
est annotated statute which has ever
cen prepared under state supory1s-
N. This statement can be verified
y anyone by an examination of The
atutes of all the states 10 the state
brary.
This is the first time I have ever
card of a public contractor beng
)nsidered reprehensibe for doing a
ore expensive piece Of wori, tkaI
IS contract required, where all
ands agree that the article produced
much more valuable thereby, with
1t cost to anyone excap. The con
actor himself This IS a new rule
ethics with which | am unfamiliar.
I have been betwncu two fires
me members of the Legislature claim
at | did not annotate enough. This
mmittee says ! annotated too much.
am reminded of a certain wise man
med Job, who lived many thousand
ars ago, who undertook to investi-
tie some fellow he didn't like, and,
t being able to get anything on him,
aged that his enemy might write a
ok, in the hope that he might find
to criticise."