Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

A state legislative commission concluded its investigation into irregularities in the construction of Cheney Normal School (today’s Showalter Hall at Eastern Washington University) – and concluded there were no irregularities.

A number of engineers testified that the building was of normal quality. Some features could have been improved, but glaring defects were lacking.

The commission thanked the witnesses and architect Julius Zittel, and moved on to the next subject of their investigation, the new school for mental patients at Medical Lake.

From the food beat: 45,000 eggs imported from China were destroyed – “cremated” – after they failed to pass a state food inspection test. Another 200,000 were still being tested, but the chances of them passing were fairly slim.

After all, these eggs had arrived by freighter from China and then sat in a Spokane warehouse for 10 months.

The destruction of the eggs was part of an agreement that Schallinger Produce had made with the county prosecutor, who had taken the company to court.

Officials were also testing 500 pounds of elderly turkey carcasses, also held in the company’s cold storage bins.