This day in history: Soldier at Fort George Wright poised to become richest in Army; Spokane City Council denies Cox rate hike on cable television

From 1976: The Spokane City Council denied a Cox Cable Television rate hike – even before the cable TV service had been launched in Spokane.

Cox Cable had won the franchise to be the purveyor of this new broadcast alternative, but between the time the contract was approved and the cable lines were strung, inflation had skyrocketed. So Cox asked the city to raise the rates from $9.95 to $14.95 for a connection charge, and from $5.95 to $7.50 for a monthly service fee.

Council member Margaret Leonard moved to deny the increase, saying it exceeded the inflation rate and did not even include the Home Box Office service, which was extra.

The council agreed to reconsider the rate hike after a year. Cox planned to launch the service later in 1976.

From 1926: Robert William Bradley, a private first class at Fort George Wright, was poised to become “the richest private in the United States Army.”

Bradley had “fallen heir” to a $200,000 oil field estate in Arkansas. He had run away from home at age 15, and only recently discovered that he had been named in his father’s will.

“Yes, I will claim the money when I get around to it,” he said. “Cannot just say when the matter of the property will be taken up or what I will do with it, but that will come in time. I am not in an especial hurry to assume the responsibility and for the present I am willing to finish my enlistment in the Army before deciding what to do with the 300 acres left me by my father. … I am content without it and willing to complete my service.”

He was “the company’s bugler and holds and expert rifleman’s medal for range work.”