100 years ago in Spokane: Police raid Wobblies ‘secret headquarters’

Police raided a “secret headquarters” of the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies) in Spokane’s Mohawk Building, and four Wobblies were arrested.

One of the men was John Grady, whom the Spokane Daily Chronicle called a Wobbly “kingpin.”

Public Safety Commissioner J.H. Tilsley ordered the raid, which also netted a large quantity of correspondence and literature.

From the Army beat: The returning soldiers of the 346th Field Artillery of the 91st Division revealed the names they gave their guns.

The No. 1 gun bore “the fancy name of Miss Spokane.”

“Of course, it will be understood from this (that) the gun crew men lived in Spokane,” a special correspondent for The Spokesman-Review said.

From the vice beat: Spokane police planned a roundup of the city’s “disorderly women” in preparation for the return of demobilized soldiers and sailors.

Recent examinations showed “a high percentage” of the women had diseases. The women were to be treated in the “social hygiene ward of the Rivercrest Contagion Hospital.”

From the labor beat: Seattle’s Central Labor Council called for a referendum on whether all Seattle labor unions should go out on strike in sympathy with about 35,000 shipyard workers.

If such a referendum should pass, it would mean a general strike in the Puget Sound area.