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

100 years ago in Spokane: Lumbermen threaten to fire non-citizens who evaded service in World War I

 (Samantha Malott)

Lumber companies in the Local Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen (the Four L’s) declared that they would fire any employee who was an “alien slacker.”

By that, they meant any man who “evaded service in the army by reason of his alien citizenship.”

The employers were asked to obtain a list from local draft boards showing which employees might fit that category.

The Four L’s organization claimed to represent about 90 percent of the logging industry in the region.

From the flu beat: City health officer Dr. J.B. Anderson made a chilling prediction.

“Not only will influenza remain with Spokane until summer comes, but there will be another epidemic of the disease next and following waters,” he said.

However, he was not overly concerned about the recent resurgence in reported flu cases. He said the numbers were misleading for two reasons. First, he said that he believed many people were now referring to any common cold as the flu. Second, doctors also were reporting these cases as the flu, out of an excess of caution.

He said the death rate was a more telling number. “As long as the death rate is kept down, there is no danger in the situation. The death rate has not gone up.”

Yet the flu was still taking a toll. On the same day, Evelyn Gardner, 17, a North Central High School sophomore, died of pneumonia following the flu.