Wickliffe Stratton (1869–1936) was the fourth Attorney General of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

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 South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

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, whi ...

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