Customs House vs. Biology
A Seattle customs broker enters a bizarre legal debate over whether whale meat should be taxed as fish or meat.
The story, cleaned up
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A conflict between the methods of the Seattle custom house and the truths of natural history arose yesterday over the question of the amount of duty to be imposed upon an article imported from China. The goods are nothing else than the flesh of the whale put up in cans. George S. Bush, the broker who entered the goods, wanted them classified as canned meat, but Deputy Collector McDonald insisted upon classifying them as canned fish. Regardless of natural history, the Deputy Collector stated that for custom house purposes a whale is a fish. The duty on canned fish is 5 percent greater than on canned meat, and Mr. Bush says an appeal will be taken.
“Regardless of natural history, for custom house purposes a whale is a fish.”
Tax code classifications have long caused friction between reality and bureaucracy. This 1891 struggle highlights the absurdity of legal definitions lagging behind scientific understanding.
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