100 years ago in Spokane: The city’s restaurant workers marched in response to what they called an indirect pay cut

An unusual “parade” threaded its way through Spokane’s downtown streets at midnight.

The city’s waiters and cooks in the Culinary Workers’ Union marched through the streets in a dispute with the city’s restaurant owners. The marchers, 160 strong, visited 14 restaurants and tore down the notices posted by the owners “which declared that members of the union would be charged 75 cents a day for meals eaten at the restaurants.”

The union maintained that this was the equivalent of a pay cut. They said this violated their contracts, which guaranteed a set wage. The owners were holding firm.

The waiters and cooks all left their positions the next morning, and declared that they were being locked out by management. Management declared the workers were on strike.

From the railroad beat: Six people died when the eastbound Portland-Spokane Limited train collided with the westbound Oregon-Washington limited train at Celilo in the Columbia Gorge.

Both trains were part of the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co. system. Both had been diverted to the tracks of a competing railroad – the Spokane, Portland and Seattle railway – because a bridge on their own tracks had been washed out. One of the trains was running late, contributing to the disaster.

At least 14 Spokane-area people were among the 22 injured in the crash. The injured were rushed to a hospital in The Dalles.

Also on this day

(From the Associated Press)

1969: U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.