100 years ago in Spokane: A new $5 tax on adults 21 to 50 was proving very unpopular

Spokane residents expressed their dislike of the new poll tax – sometimes a little too forcefully.

One assessor was ”confronted by a tirade of abuse” in one neighborhood.

The term “poll tax” had a different meaning than commonly used today. This new poll tax had nothing to do with voting. It was simply a $5 tax on every citizen in the state between the ages of 21 and 50 (“poll” meaning ‘head”),

Special assessors had fanned out across the city to obtain 5,000 names per day – and it was proving to be a difficult job. One assessor was ordered out of a neighborhood with a volley of abuse.

The county assessor said citizens defying the enumerators would be prosecuted.

“While most of the citizens feel the law is unjust, they are not adopting a hostile attitude, it is reported at the courthouse.”

From the Prohibition beat: About 1,000 bottles of beer, destined for the “lodging house trade,” were found under a bridge near Mead.

Deputies found the stash carefully packed under a culvert and staked out the place for several hours to see if anyone would come and pick it up. Eventually, the sheriff lost patience and confiscated it.

The sheriff said it was probably locally brewed, and of “fine quality.” It probably would have sold for a dollar a bottle in lodging houses.

On this day

(From Associated Press)

1931: Notre Dame college football coach Knute Rockne, 43, was killed in the crash of a TWA plane in Bazaar, Kansas.