100 years ago today in Spokane: Fire chief issues warning about candles and Christmas trees

The Spokane fire chief gave one final warning about a serious fire danger: candles on Christmas trees.

“Do not, under any consideration, light or allow the children to light candles on a Christmas tree,” said the fire chief. “The tree itself and most of the trimmings are highly inflammable. … The trimmings of the tree, the whiskers on Santa Claus, and everything which comes close to the tree should be noninflammable.”

The chief suggested metal tinsel instead of paper, and electric lights instead of candles.

From the tonsorial beat: Spokane’s barber strike ended when all of the shop owners agreed to a 5% raise and guaranteed weekly pay of at least $26 per week.

Several shop owners had declared that they would never agree to such terms, but in the end, they did. All of the strikers were back at work in the same chairs they presided over before the strike.

From the Wobbly beat: A total of 71 Wobblies were still being held in Spokane City Jail, with little prospect that they would be released soon. They had all been arrested in November during raids of Industrial Workers of the World “hangouts” and later sentenced by the police court to 30 days for violating the city’s “syndicalism” ordinance.

Now they were in jeopardy of having state charges filed against them. However, those charges had not yet been filed because the constitutionality of a state injunction “restraining all persons from membership in the Wobbly organization” was still being debated in the courts.

“There is no cause for alarm in regard to these men getting free,” said the Spokane County prosecutor. “They are held on the city (charges) and their terms do not expire until the middle of January.”