100 years ago today: Crime was on the rise in Spokane

Spokane County’s sheriff-elect, Clarence E. Long, warned that crime was increasing in nearly every category.

Liquor violations had more than doubled, he said. Narcotics use was skyrocketing.

He was particularly concerned about a shocking increase in morphine, cocaine and “virtually all kinds of dope,” among young people.

“Insanity also has increased,” said Long. “We handled 148 cases in 1919, and 1920 will show 190 cases.”

Larceny, burglary and “automobile thievery” were also on the rise, said Long.

“If the situation does not improve, we will have to increase our staff of field deputies and will need to install a night force,” he said.

From the high school beat: The Spokane Daily Chronicle decried “a spirit of suspicion” and “an attitude of unfriendliness” in the athletic contests between Spokane’s two high schools, North Central and Lewis and Clark.

Relations between the two schools had grown so testy that the school board demanded that their athletic contests henceforth be carried on “in a friendly and sportsmanlike manner.”

The Chronicle urged the athletic directors of each school to “iron out their differences.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1890: The Wounded Knee massacre took place in South Dakota as an estimated 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them.

1989: Dissident and playwright Vaclav Havel assumed the presidency of Czechoslovakia.