Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Palouse-area farmers renewed their attack on the proposed eight-hour workday law. They said it would be a particular hardship to farmers during harvest time.

“The farmer would be compelled to have two crews of men, and both crews must be fed,” said a Whitman County farm leader.

He said the proposal would raise the price of wheat.

 It also would mean that the farmer’s wife would need two shifts of help in the kitchen and on the cook wagon, resulting in “double the number of kitchen help during the week and extra help on Sunday.”

From the war zone: A prophetic story ran on the front page of The Spokesman-Review from an AP correspondent in London.

“The armies cannot keep up the struggle much longer and unless one side soon obtains a decided advantage, we shall see a stalemate result all along the front,” said the correspondent. “Then victory can be won only by the side able to bring up absolutely fresh forces which have not felt the strain of two months of continuous fighting. The strain of this modern fighting is something never seen before. The troops are under fire sometimes for days. If they escape the rifles and machine guns they are within range of the deadly shrapnel, and if they are too far off for shrapnel, they come under the range of the howitzers and siege guns. One may be under fire anywhere within seven miles of the enemy.”