100 years ago in Spokane: The young go off to war

Spokane’s high schools were experiencing a crisis: the boys were quitting high school and going to war.

Lewis and Clark High School’s principal said that about 800 boys had already quit his school for various reasons. Most had enlisted in the army or navy, but others had gone into business positions and “general lines of work,” probably because so many jobs had opened up while other men went to war.

He said North Central High School had a similar situation.

In a related issue, there was a statewide call to use high school students to work as farm workers to replace workers who had gone to war. This was particularly crucial to “save the fruit crop.” There was talk of delaying the opening of school next fall until after the fruit harvest.

The school board was making plans to address these issues.

From the accident beat: William Clark, a bridge worker, was working on the log boom at the Division Street bridge, directing floating debris way from the bridge. When a floating log got caught in the boom, he tried to pry it loose and fell backwards into the rushing water.

Another workman below him “tried to catch him as he flashed past, but failed.” Clark was swept into the middle of the river and the other workmen saw him trying to swim out of the swift current.

However, the river was exceptionally high and fast. The last anybody saw of him, he was being swept downstream toward the falls. His body had not yet been recovered.