100 years ago in Spokane: Northern Pacific railroad workers vote to end nearly yearlong strike

Northern Pacific railroad shopmen voted to formally end their strike, which had been ongoing since the previous summer.

The strike had been effectively broken months earlier when the railroad hired nonunion replacement workers.

The 450 striking union members essentially recognized this reality when they voted by an 80% margin to end the strike. The company “made no agreement and granted no concessions to the strikers,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

The railroad did agree to take the men back “as vacancies occur.” However, a local manager said he already had a full crew of 500 men at the Yardley yards and “can place none of them.”

This did not signal the end of strike altogether in Spokane. About 85 shopmen with the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co. were still out on strike.

From the Lincoln beat: Architect Kirtland Cutter made a trip to Seattle to inspect the statue of Abraham Lincoln that the citizens of Spokane had commissioned from sculptor Alonzo Victor Lewis.

“I am wholly satisfied with the manner in which Mr. Lewis has handled the work, and I feel that the memorial statue will be a credit to Spokane,” said Cutter.

The statue had not yet been cast in bronze ; it was still a clay model. Cutter said, “The severe lines of the standing figure have been skillfully relieved by the graceful folds of a great coat thrown over the right shoulder and hanging away from the back.”

The statue was destined for a triangular patch of ground at the corner of Main and Monroe streets – where it stands today.