100 years ago in Spokane: Bootlegging was so bad, it made the city a grim regional ‘financial center’

Spokane had achieved its goal of becoming a major “financial center,” but not of the kind to brag about.

Spokane was the “main market and financial center of a liquor-smuggling and bootlegging traffic that originates in British Columbia, flows through Ferry County, and spreads over Eastern Washington.”

That was the testimony of federal officials after making a weeklong survey of bootlegging conditions in the region. They announced extensive plans for combating the liquor traffic, including increasing the number of enforcement officers and instituting more rigorous inspection of autos and trucks at the border.

One official noted that conditions were particularly bad in Ferry County, which he described as “practically lawless.”

Most of the liquor coming over the border was destined to be consumed in Spokane.

From the hydroelectric beat: Hydroelectric power was the future, the Spokane Daily Chronicle said, and “one-fifth of the nation’s total water power resources is contained in the Spokane country.”

Only 4.9%, however, had been developed. This was one reason why the region’s electrical engineers were planning to hold their big “electrical show” – a kind of electrical Expo – in Spokane in a month. The purpose would be to show the public the benefits of using this vast resource.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

2015: Islamic State militants carried out a set of coordinated attacks in Paris on the national stadium, restaurants and streets, and a crowded concert hall, killing 130 people in the worst attack on French soil since World War II.