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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

100 years ago in Spokane: Jitneys undercut new 6-cent streetcar fare

 (Jonathan Brunt / The Spokesman-Review)

Spokane’s jitneys – private autos and vans that carried paying customers – were prepared to undercut the new 6-cent streetcar fare and continue to charge only 5 cents.

A jitney representative said jitneys – unlike streetcars – could “make money” on a 5-cent fare.

This threatened the compromise solution that had just been announced in Spokane’s continuing streetcar crisis. Spokane’s two private streetcar companies were set to consolidate into one company and charge 6 cents for at least 90 days. This would stop the financial bleeding – or so they hoped.

“It will be a big job – this consolidation of two unwieldy car lines – but it will never be easier than now,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle said.

From the education beat: Teachers converged on Spokane for the annual Inland Empire Teachers Association convention – and they got an earful from the dean of the University of Arkansas.

Dean J.R. Jewell said many high schools teach subjects that are “useless in life.” He said English was “the most poorly taught subject in our secondary schools” and “argumentation is the most poorly taught division of that subject.” He also said “the poorest course I have ever had myself was labeled botany.”

He was in favor of manual training courses, “because it is valuable to have this one study in the curriculum in which a boy cannot cheat or bluff – if his box corners do not fit, they do not fit.”