100 years ago in the Inland Northwest: Theater troupe plans performances at logging camps

The Little Theater Company of Spokane was making plans to fan out into the woods to entertain the lumberjacks in the region’s logging camps.

They planned to “put on sketches and entertainments for the timber workers,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported. This was a project of the “Three L’s of the Inland Empire,” a ladies’ auxiliary organization of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen.

The auxiliary had arranged with Miss Lilly Courtney of the Little Theater Company to have members of her theatrical classes “entertain the men of the woods.”

From the court beat: An attorney for the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, told a jury that his organization does not advocate violence, and that it was organized solely for the purpose of self-protection.

“The I.W.W. was created from the very essence of necessity, because of suppression of the workers, and not as a revolutionary organization, as is claimed,” said attorney John Roche.

He was defending a group of Wobblies who were being tried on charges of “criminal syndicalism” – a controversial new city law that was aimed directly at suppressing the Wobblies.

From the parks beat: The Spokane Park Board authorized construction of a new swimming pool at Liberty Park.

The new pool, on the east end of the park, would have heated water and ample changing facilities.

The board planned construction to be completed by summer.