100 years ago in Spokane: Prohibition was all over the news, but an epidemic was also starting to make headlines

A common theme – illegal booze – was evident in many of the day’s big news stories.

Federal Prohibition officials were in Spokane to try to elicit cooperation between Washington and Idaho enforcement agents, since a great deal of Spokane’s bootlegged booze arrived through Kingsgate/Eastport on the Idaho-British Columbia border. A cooperative agreement would make it easier to catch offenders.

A related story noted that Spokane County had just purchased a speedy Hudson Super-Six auto for use by the county’s “dry squad.” The purchase was funded by the fines and forfeitures resulting from raids on 14 stills in little more than a month.

The sheriff credited “gentle breezes,” which “wafted the unmistakable fumes of moonshine” through the countryside, leading agents to the stills.

A third story detailed a thrilling high-speed chase and shootout in Montana, in which bootleggers crashed through police roadblocks and stopped only when police put three bullets through the car’s radiator.

From the epidemic beat: U.S. authorities announced new precautions to prevent the spread of typhus, which had become epidemic in Europe.

European immigrants arriving in New York would be refused admission until “thoroughly disinfected” and quarantined. Officials stopped short of banning all immigrants from typhus-infected areas.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded.