Harlan F. Stone

“ The taxing act does not, as required by the permissive act, levy a per centum gross production tax in terms of value, and, more important, it provides that the entire tax levied for the period from the effective date of the Act of 1933 to June 30, 1935, is to be used to pay the expenses of state officials authorized by the state 'proration law' to apportion and control oil and gas production in such manner as to prevent waste by producers drawing from a common source or pool. ”

“ The act provides that the tax shall be in lieu of all other taxes upon oil in place in the ground, oil leases, or equipment used for oil production, and that one-third of the tax collected in each county shall be returned to it for the construction of permanent roads and bridges and 'for and in aid of' the common schools. The levy is denominated by the taxing act a 'gross production tax,' a label which this Court and the Supreme Court of Oklahoma have accepted as appropriate. ”

“ Congress, in removing the tax immunity, chus had in contemplation the particular tax then on the statute books of Oklahoma, then and ever since described as a gross production tax, the benefits of which would inure to Indians in Osage county by the distribution of a part of the tax to that county. The section bears its own evidence of the intention that the waiver of tax immunity of the production of oil from Indian lands was to be limited to a tax having these characteristics. The tax is described as a gross production tax. ”