Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

A group of laborers and teamsters packed the Spokane City Council chambers “to suffocation,” reported The Spokesman-Review.

When council members said it was against public policy to grant them wage increases, they broke out in jeers and catcalls.

The council finally reversed itself and increased wages to $3 a day for laborers and $6 a day for teamsters, drawing cheers.

From the police files: Two high school students, 17, were arrested for beating a 54-year-old Chinese peddler, paralyzing him.

The boys told police that they threw a baseball and hit the man’s vegetable wagon. They claimed they were then forced to knock him down in self-defense, and that he hit his head against a tree. Witnesses, however, said the boys grabbed the man’s whip and beat him with the whip’s butt.

The doctor treating the victim said he was “one of the first Chinamen to come to this city” and “an unusually inoffensive old fellow.” The doctor said he may be crippled for life.

Also on this date

1969: James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis, Tenn., to assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Ray later repudiated that plea.