100 years ago in Spokane: Tuberculosis, family farms among reasons for Spokane’s low acceptance rate in World War I draft

Here were the current numbers from the Spokane County draft board:

Summoned: 1,147

Appeared: 877

Exemptions: 181

Accepted: 200

Rejected: 217

Aliens: 56

Already enlisted: 23

Transfers: 14

The “accepted” number was low for a variety of reasons. The draft board reported that “many farmer boys asked to be exempted on the grounds that they had to support their parents.” Five men were found to have tuberculosis.

From the club beat: A new federation of “colored women’s clubs of the state” was organized, and Mrs. John Mapps of Spokane was elected president. Other Spokane women were elected as state federation officers: Mrs. C.C. Grubb, corresponding secretary; Mrs. M.E. Holtzclaw, treasurer; and Miss Mamie Hagen, editor.

All of the other officers were from Seattle or Tacoma. The federation consisted of 11 clubs throughout the state, with others expected to join.

Also on this date

From the Associated Press

1867: President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, with whom he had clashed over Reconstruction policies. (Johnson was acquitted by the Senate.)

1953: The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.