Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Idaho Senator Weldon B. Heyburn – for whom Heyburn State Park is now named – delivered a characteristically pugnacious speech in Coeur d’Alene.

When someone in the audience laughed out loud at Heyburn’s defense of a tariff bill, “the senator flew into a rage,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

“After reciting what the Republican Party had done for the nation, he (Heyburn) said in the highest pitch of his voice, ‘Take that, you cackler,’ ” said the Chronicle.

The county Republican leaders previously had “used every means possible yesterday to get Senator Heyburn to cancel his date” in Coeur d’Alene. When they saw that this was impossible “they attempted to tell him what he should say and what he should leave unsaid.”

Heyburn replied “with much vehemence” that “nobody could dictate what he should say.”

For one thing, Heyburn refused to back prohibition, a popular issue within the progressive movement of the Republican Party.

“The people of the country had to be well fed and kept well fed before they were ready to handle the prohibition question,” said Heyburn.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1957: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 into orbit; on board was Laika, a dog sacrificed in the experiment.