Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

Members of The Woman’s Club of Spokane declared that they were “on strike” when it came to their participation in a committee investigating the city’s prison conditions.

The city’s leading progressive women signed an open letter announcing that they would refuse to serve on the committee unless its deliberations were secret – to prevent retaliation by police against witnesses. They also demanded that various labor organizations be represented.

Spokane jail conditions had become an incendiary issue in the wake of the recent Free Speech Fight involving the International Workers of the World (Wobblies). Among the charges: that police operated a virtual brothel in the women’s jail.

A bridge casualty: A man working on the timber at the north end of the Monroe Street bridge lost his hold and plunged 22 feet to earth.

His fellow workers found him badly broken on the rocks below. He was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital with two fractured arms and internal injuries. Doctors were concerned that his injuries could prove fatal.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1794: Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America’s cotton industry … 1900: Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act.