100 years ago in Spokane: A priest spoke out in favor of living wages to avoid putting people ‘into the ranks of the malcontents’

Father William Metz, a Spokane priest, gave an impassioned plea for economic justice.

A living wage for workers, he said in a speech at Lewis and Clark High School, was an absolute necessity for a functioning society.

“A contented people makes a happy nation, not contented capital,” he said.

He said the very least every wage-earner should expect is a five-room house with modern conveniences; decent food, clothing and furniture; an education for his children; and financial security in old age and in case of sickness.

“When these conditions are met, a conscientious man will give his services generously and cheerfully; to despoil him of such living wage is to lower his self-respect as a member of the human family, to make him a half-hearted worker and drive him into the ranks of the malcontents.”

From the crime beat: Herbert Reard, 24, and his brother John Reard, 29, were transported from Ephrata to Sacred Heart Hospital, and doctors gave each of them only a 50-50 chance of recovery.

Both brothers were shot in the face by Lawrence Simmons, 21, a ranch hand at the Purdy Ranch.

Jealousy was the motive, because Herbert Reard was engaged to Miss Bertha Ashcroft, who lived on the ranch. Both men received a charge of birdshot in the face.

They were brought to Spokane on the Great Northern train, where they were lowered through a window of a Pullman car and then wheeled to a waiting ambulance. Both men were unconscious.