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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 75 years ago

Spokane police cleared out 65 strikers who had been engaging in a 16-day sit-down strike at Spokane’s Works Progress Administration office.

The defiant leader of the group, which called itself the Workers’ Alliance, vowed that the cops would have to haul him out bodily and that he would carry on a hunger strike in jail.

But he soon changed his mind and walked out peacefully with the rest of the group.

The strike began when a group of unemployed men and women asked for jobs, but the WPA had no money to hire them. 

In the third week, city officials grew impatient and declared them a public nuisance.

The city finally ordered the police chief to clear out the strikers – along with their cots, sleeping bags and cooking utensils.

A total of 25 officers were given the task, which was apparently made easier by the fact that the strikers had been squabbling among themselves for a few days.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1912: The Girl Scouts of the USA had its beginnings as Juliette Gordon Low, of Savannah, Ga., founded the first American troop of the Girl Guides, a movement that originated in Britain along with the Boy Scouts.

1932: The “Swedish Match King,” Ivar Kreuger, was found dead in his Paris apartment, an apparent suicide, leaving behind a financial empire that turned out to be worthless.