Grays Harbor Taxpayers Threaten to Stop Paying Up
Delegates from every corner of the county pack a Montesano rink to censure their officials — and weigh whether to simply refuse to pay their taxes.
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.
A meeting of taxpayers was held Monday in the Aberdeen Bank to select a committee to join with like committees from the other towns in the county, to meet at Montesano, Wednesday, and confer with the county commissioners in regard to reducing the expenses of the county, and also to urge them to push the case in the supreme court against the county attorney and ex-attorney in the matter of the attorney fees. Messrs. Sam Benn, Alex Young and R. T. Dabney were appointed, and went up on yesterday morning's train.
The taxpayers' meeting at Montesano last evening was attended by representatives from all the principal points in the county, the large rink being filled. Several speeches were made censuring the county attorney and assessor in particular, and the county commissioners and legislature in general. A committee of twenty-five were appointed to meet this morning and determine whether or not they should play the baby-act and refuse to pay their taxes. A permanent organization was agreed upon, which, if kept up, will doubtless do much to correct the evils complained of in the future, by cutting down expenses and equalizing valuations.
“A committee of twenty-five were appointed to meet this morning and determine whether or not they should play the baby-act and refuse to pay their taxes.”
A century before Grays Harbor's modern fights over county budgets and assessments, its taxpayers were already threatening mass refusal to pay and demanding that officials answer for attorney fees. The threat to 'refuse to pay their taxes' is the same blunt language that surfaces in every era of local fiscal revolt.
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