Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives,

100 years ago

Spokane business interests were still celebrating the Interstate Commerce Commission’s decision to decrease by 25 percent rail shipping rates from Spokane. “Rate decision spurs realty men, who see great future for city,” proclaimed a headline on The Spokesman-Review’s third page of coverage. Yes. Third. Several well-known land dealers opined positively on the ruling. “The decision puts Spokane in a new position entirely, one which the city has never occupied before. Spokane now can command the markets of the Inland Empire,” said J.J. Browne. Warehouse properties would be the first to feel the effect, said F. Elmer Tate, of Frank A. Chase & Co. “After the warehouse sites, the semi- business and close-in business property will feel the good effect,” he said.

The rate battle was a long-fought one. The city first filed a complaint with the commission in 1891.

From the crime beat: A Spokane barber was arrested for swindling after charging a foreigner $6.60 for a shave. The barber, known only as Lemieux, whose shop was at 226 Washington St., was locked up on $200 bond. His rate, the paper claimed, threatened to eclipse that of the city’s highest-priced barber shop, the Grand, at Howard and Main.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1958: The U.S. Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill by a vote of 64-20.