100 years ago in Spokane: Montana attorney seeks Supreme Court help in case targeting Wobblies

An attorney for the Wobblies initiated a Washington Supreme Court case, asking to strike down Spokane’s blanket injunction against the Wobblies.

A court injunction had made it a crime to belong to the Wobblies, or even wear the group’s buttons or insignia. The state Supreme Court was asked to rule on a case involving two men who were serving 90-day sentences in the Spokane County Jail for violating the injunction, i.e., being members of the Industrial Workers of the World, aka Wobblies.

The two men were almost finished with their terms, and their attorney, L.B. Sulgrove of Butte, said his action was simply to test the validity of this injunction.

From the tobacco beat: The Women’s Christian Temperance Union announced a new enemy: the cigarette.

The group was organizing anti-cigarette leagues throughout the city.

“I feel it is my duty to do all in my power to banish the cigarette,” said one of the organizers.

She also announced a school essay contest on the subject, “The Effect of the Cigarette on the Human System.”

From the factory beat: The Ohio Match Co. announced plans to build a $200,000 plant at Yardley, in the industrial area just east of Spokane. The Inland Northwest was a desirable location for wooden match factories because of its plentiful supplies of white pine.