The Commissioner Who Wouldn’t Hand Over the Books
A state auditor comes to Yakima to shut down the arid-land office. Col. Howlett says the law is on his side—and politely keeps the records.
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.
Ranche and Range had as a visitor Thursday last Mr. Ernest Lister, auditor of the state board of control. He had been making a tour of the state looking over the various public institutions. Mr. Lister called upon Col. Howlett while in Yakima, with the intention of relieving him of the office of arid land commissioner, closing up his quarters and taking the books, etc., of the office back to Olympia; but the genial colonel politely declined to be removed or give up the property as requested, saying that from the interpretation he had made of the law, he was still the arid land commissioner, despite the declaration of the governor. Mr. Lister stated that he would report the decision of Mr. Howlett to the governor.
“The genial colonel politely declined to be removed or give up the property as requested, saying that from the interpretation he had made of the law, he was still the arid land commissioner, despite the declaration of the governor.”
The standoff over who controlled the arid-land office—and its records—was a small but telling collision between state authority and a local official who dug in. In a region where land and water were the whole economy, control of the paperwork could decide who got access to both. Modern Yakima still argues over water rights and who administers them.
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