100 years ago in North Idaho: Investigative reporter finds local authorities indifferent to bootlegging

Running illicit Canadian booze through Bonners Ferry and Sandpoint was simply too easy.

That was the conclusion of Mark Shields, an investigative reporter doing a series of exposés for the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

“Sometimes, the liquor reaches Spokane; at other times other loads are diverted into the Coeur d’Alenes, to the delight of the Wallace ‘wets,’ ” wrote Shields.

He claimed that the Bonner County sheriff’s “lack of interest in the liquor-runners” caused his defeat at the polls in the primary, but he was now running on a third party ticket and might be re-elected. The Sandpoint “drys” were not accusing the sheriff of dishonesty, but they were filled with “disgust” over his indifference. For 22 months, the sheriff had not “apprehended or overhauled” a single rum-runner.

From the school beat: A citizen’s committee investigating alleged “immorality” in Spokane’s public schools said it found “no credible evidence of immorality occurring in either the high schools or grade schools.”

There was juvenile delinquency, of course, but it was occurring “outside of school hours and away from school property.” And the proportion of delinquency of any kind was “extremely small.”

The committee did, however, recommend several steps to protect morals: “more active censorship of moving picture shows, closing of roadhouses in the outside district after midnight, and closing of noodle cafes and upstairs restaurants at midnight.”