Wickliffe Stratton (1869–1936) was the fourth

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

of Washington from 1901 to 1905. A Republican and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

state Native, Stratton was 30 when elected, he had previously served as the South Bend City Attorney and

Pacific County Pacific County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,365. Its county seat is South Bend, and its largest city is Raymond. The county was formed by the government of Oregon Territory in Feb ...

Prosecutor. While only in office for a single term his concerns were to preserve and promote the state's power to collect taxes. Stratton took several of the towns of Washington to court to make sure they collected taxes on liquor sold and reported it to the state. He also successfully challenged the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, wh ...

and was able to establish that it was not exempt from paying taxes on the land in Washington state.

References

1869 births 1936 deaths Washington (state) Attorneys General 20th-century American politicians {{US-law-bio-stub