100 years ago today in Spokane: City makes war bond push

The pressure to purchase Liberty bonds was intense, and now the city government itself was ratcheting up the pressure.

The city announced that city employees who refused to purchase war bonds would be dismissed.

One commissioner said, “We have found quite a number who have contributed absolutely nothing to support the government in this war, and who give as an excuse that they can not afford it.”

Meanwhile, the Spokane Daily Chronicle editorial page urged its readers “not to be satisfied when you’ve bought your own bond – see that every other person with whom you come in contact has done the same.”

From the movie beat: William S. “Bill” Hart, the world’s most famous cowboy movie star, was coming to Spokane to help sell Liberty bonds. Hart was on a Liberty bond tour and was arriving in Spokane after rallies in California and Montana.

From the war beat: G.B. Twitchell, a former Spokane streetcar man, died on a French battlefield. Few details were given. He was a member of the 20th Engineers, a group that had earned the moniker “the Fighting Engineers.”