100 years ago in Seattle: National Guard on standby as 60,000 workers strike

Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson issued an ultimatum to the nearly 60,000 workers who were engaged in the Seattle General Strike.

“Unless the sympathetic strike is called off at 8 a.m. February 8, I will take steps to operate all essential industries and place this city under control of the federal government.”

Hanson said “the anarchists in this community shall not rule its affairs.”

There was no change in the strike deadlock and Seattle’s labor council stood firm in its resolve. However, tensions were rising as armed soldiers stood guard at government buildings and more were in reserve. About 1,000 extra police officers gathered at Seattle police headquarters.

Washington National Guard soldiers – including those in Spokane – were ordered to stand by in case they were needed in Seattle.

From the museum beat: The Eastern Washington State Historical Society reported it had received a number of valuable specimens and curios to add to its collection.

Those items included an old cannon from the Hudson’s Bay Co. trading post at Colville; an old balance scale from that post; a pistol “once used by George Washington;” and five mounted elk from the Spokane Elks Lodge.

Displaying these and other items was, however, a problem.

The work of the society, which occupied only a small downtown space, was “handicapped through the lack of sufficient funds,” the society’s annual report said.