100 years ago today in Spokane: Police guard judge after alleged Wobbly threats

Spokane police were guarding Judge R.M. Webster because of alleged Wobbly threats against his life.

The Spokane Daily Chronicle claimed that anonymous letters and verbal threats had been made against Judge Webster and other Spokane officials.

The judge had been under guard for two days. The guard would be maintained indefinitely, said J.H. Tilsley, Spokane’s commissioner of public safety. Tilsley claimed that he, too, had been the subject of threats.

However, the exact nature of those threats was a bit hazy.

The Chronicle, routinely anti-Wobbly, reported that informants had told police that a “definite plan had been worked out by the Wobblies to harm Judge Webster,” but gave no details. It claimed that some of the Wobblies who had been arrested for violating Webster’s anti-Wobbly injunction “were very bitter against him.”

However, Judge Webster himself did not corroborate these claims.

“Personally, I do not know that my life has been threatened,” said the judge. “Further than that, I can say nothing at this time.”

From the flu beat: About 100 new cases of flu were reported in Spokane, and 30 patients had been admitted to the city’s temporary flu hospital.

This indicated that the epidemic was gaining steam. Spokane schools reported 4,000 students and 65 teachers absent.

However, the 1920 flu strain still appeared to be less deadly than the 1919 strain. Only one death was reported at the city’s new hospital.