Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A group of Wobblies – members of the Industrial Workers of the World – disrupted a Spokane City Council meeting and forced an early adjournment.

The Wobblies hooted and jeered during a discussion of the Christian Home for Men, a charitable institution for the down-and-out. The council was considering a $1,900 appropriation to the institution.

One Wobbly suggested that the home’s superintendent be given “24 hours to leave town.” At that point, a city commissioner abruptly adjourned the meeting because he feared “violence might ensue.”

The Wobblies clearly despised the institution for reasons not entirely clear.

In fact, a month earlier, police were summoned to the home to drive off a group of Wobblies who tried to break into the home.

The issue had apparently become personal between the Wobblies and the superintendent, Warren Latham.

Latham, during the council hearings, said, “I will not quit now or be intimidated because some radicals, whose ways I could not countenance, want to wreck the home.”

One Wobbly speaker suggested that the city set aside the money “for a home to be conducted by the unemployed themselves.”