Day 32: Going Viral, 1905

George C. Baker didn’t seek the limelight, but he accepted it when the occasion demanded.

Many people urged the successful Morgantown property lawyer to run for elective office. He never did.

He left his name on property around town - I was startled to see it on a plaque in front of the Old Stone House as I walked down Chestnut Street recently - but the Morgantown Historical Society had few records of him.

As I retraced his steps, what impressed me most was that Baker - deeply private individual that he was - willingly became a statewide celebrity as he fought for oil and gas tax reform in 1905 and 1906.

Baker’s Crusade

Those were the days when Standard Oil subsidiary South Penn Oil Company made a fortune extracting oil from Mon County without paying any taxes on it - while surface owners paid higher assessments because of the oil wealth beneath their land.

Baker started a letter-writing campaign to state newspapers protesting the system. What’s more, he devised a legal theory to overcome the oil company’s clever theories for avoiding taxation, and he worked with the new governor, William M.O. Dawson, to implement it. In doing so, they directly challenged John D. Rockefeller, perhaps the most powerful individual in the country at the time - with the exception, as would soon be proven out, of Theodore Roosevelt.

As the ordinarily retiring Baker wrote to the Morgantown Chronicle,

All we need in this state is to have moral courage to do our plain duty, and if necessary to force those corporations or trusts to do their duty under the constitution after they have failed and refused to do so for these many years. Is there any one in the state will say that I am wrong? I remain,

Yours most respectfully,

GEORGE C. BAKER

In 1905 terms, Baker’s words went viral. This and other letters were reprinted in newspapers across the state. The editors of the West Virginia University yearbook even dedicated that volume to him in 1906, saying:

“By his sound, logical arguments, striking illustrations and plain discussions on the subject of equal and uniform taxation, he started a reformation, which spread like a conflagration over the state, from hilltop to valley, into every city, town and hamlet.”

Ultimately, Baker would win the battle but lose the war. His theory that oil leases should be taxed as “chattels real” prevailed against the oil and gas companies in the state Supreme Court in 1905. But the following year, the coal companies - to which Baker’s logic would also have applied - scored a knockout punch when the Court entered a judgment (in a discussion spanning nine pages with only one legal citation) that watered down valuation to trivial levels.

Anatomy of a Quiet Life

I’ve written more about Baker’s ingenious legal theory and political strategy elsewhere. On this surprisingly cool first day of August, as I slowly recover from a stubborn illness, I think of Baker as I pass by his portrait that still hangs on the living room wall.

This home - which he moved into when he was precisely the age I am now - is a splendid haven. I spent the COVID-19 pandemic shut in here, which is how I became acquainted with Baker, and this house has something of his quiet temperament to it. Days here pass gently, easily.

But in these days of disruption, with our 24-hour news cycle and ubiquitous social media, I’m reminded that Baker was willing to shoulder the burden of the limelight when he knew the task demanded it.

(And just for the record - speaking as a property lawyer 100 years later - his theory was right. ;-) )