Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A mass meeting of Spokane’s many unemployed men got rowdy at Central Christian Church.

One angry man, a secretary of the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World), stood up and said that if work was not found, “every man with red blood in his veins will take, in this land of plenty, enough to feed his starving wife and family.”

This was greeted with “applause and much stamping of feet.”

However, other men rose to denounce that statement, saying that “90 percent of them would not do anything that is wrong or take what does not belong to them.” 

In the end, the men at the meeting resolved to demonstrate at City Hall and the courthouse, along with their wives and children, and “stay there until given employment.”

A representative of Spokane’s Chamber of Commerce said the chamber has been working on the problem and strongly urged the city and the county to do everything possible to provide additional work.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1965: Singer Nat King Cole, 45, died in Santa Monica, California.

1989: The Soviet Union announced the last of its troops left Afghanistan.

2010 : Eighteen people were killed when two trains collided south of Brussels.