100 years ago in Spokane: Navy machinist wins French Croix de Guerre medal; City Council votes to combine streetcar companies

Machinist mate first class Arthur V. Kanatsher, 31, became the first U.S. Navy man from Spokane to win the French Croix de Guerre medal.

Kanatsher was piloting an “H-2 flying boat” off the French coast the previous August when he spotted a German submarine.

Kanatsher immediately went into a dive and pulled a lever to let loose a bomb.

“I saw a great fountain of water rise in the air, followed by a terrific concussion,” he said. “I never saw the submarine again, but as I circled at low altitude around the spot where the bomb struck, great masses of oil and wreckage floated the surface.”

He recently returned from France to San Diego, where his mother now lives.

From the streetcar beat: The Spokane City Council voted in favor of consolidating the city’s two private streetcar lines.

This was a major compromise by the council, which also granted other concessions fo the two companies.

However, it did not settle the controversial issue of streetcar fares. The state Public Service Commission was meeting the next day to rule on a request by the companies to raise fares from five cents to seven cents.

The city council again went on record opposing any fare increase.