100 years ago in Spokane: Idaho lawmakers move to relocate UI to Boise; Seattle mayor indicted for bribery

Idaho state legislators issued a proposal to move the University of Idaho out of Moscow and into “a more central location” – that is, Boise.

This was part of a comprehensive education consolidation plan proposed at a joint meeting of the state Legislature’s education committee and the Idaho State Board of Education.

The plan also called for abandoning the “normal school” (teacher’s college) at Lewiston, and moving it into the university buildings in Moscow.

No “definite action” was taken on this plan, nor, evidently, would any action take place. A century later, Moscow remains the home of the University of Idaho.

From the bribery beat: The news out of Seattle couldn’t have been more sensational: Seattle Mayor Hiram C. Gill, the Seattle police chief and a former sheriff were all charged in a bribery and bootlegging case.

A front-page headline screamed that Gill was charged with taking “a bribe of $4,000 on booze.”

The government alleged that Gill accepted a $4,000 bribe from a bootlegger named Logan Billingsley in the mayor’s office, “and that on the same day Gill entered into a compromise with Billingsley” involving a previous police raid.

The mayor allegedly told Billingsley that he needed to “pay your fare to the right conductor.”

The mayor and the others were indicted by a federal grand jury.