The Logging Law Loophole
A court ruling renders timber-scaling laws toothless, allowing logs to be transported before taxation.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The case of Captain Monroe, of the J. B. Libby, was argued before Judge Hoyt today, and the held substantially as follows: The complaint against the defendant was made under section of the law, as follows: 'Section: All logs bartered or sold in the district shall be scaled and measured at the place where they are rafted or ready for towage to market or mill.' As no complaint was made that the logs were bartered or sold before they were towed away, the complaint was insufficient and the defendant ordered discharged. Under this decision the law is practically of no force, as logs may be towed anywhere before they are bartered or sold. The Judge gave as his opinion that that part of the law making the logs pay a certain percentage into the county school fund would be in the nature of a special tax on the logger, and therefore unconstitutional.
“Under this decision the law is practically of no force, as logs may be towed anywhere before they are bartered or sold.”
Resource extraction and the taxation of timber have been perennial points of contention in Washington history. This 1884 case mirrors modern disputes regarding how the state accounts for natural resources and who bears the fiscal burden of local infrastructure and public schooling.
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