100 years ago in Spokane: Notorious bootlegger found slacking on the draft

Charlie Dale, already well-known as the “king of the bootleggers,” was in a different kind of trouble.

Dale was in custody as a “slacker,” or draft evader.

“When arrested, Dale had a roll of bills on his person as big as your fist,” reported the Spokane police detectives who arrested him.

After he arrived at the station, he gave the money to his wife.

Dale had been arrested several times for “infractions of the liquor laws” and recently completed a long sentence in the county jail for a bootlegging conviction.

He carried no draft registration or classification card when he was arrested. Men of his age were required to carry such cars during wartime. Police said he claimed he had registered for the draft in Butte, but “had never been notified of his classification.”

Authorities were investigating.

From the fair beat: About “540 American bluejackets” – sailors in the U.S. Navy – were the honored guests at the 1918 Interstate Fair.

The sailors arrived by train from the naval training station in Seattle and were scheduled to “make their home on the Interstate Fairgrounds all week long.”