This day in history: $6 would pay for roundtrip form Spokane here in 1926

From 1976: The presidential campaign of Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington was hopelessly stalled, but he could still play kingmaker in the Democratic convention.

Jackson was likely to have “the third largest” delegate total at the convention, behind frontrunner Jimmy Carter and second place Morris Udall.

What would he do with those delegates?

“According to those closest to him, he has yet to reach a decision,” said a report from the New York Times. “The senator had made it plain he will take no active part in a stop Carter movement, even though Carter’s success in usurping the Democratic center, more than anything else, ended Jackson’s presidential hopes.”

Some observers speculated that he might throw his support to Carter, but he might also try to deliver his delegates to Hubert Humphrey, if a draft-Humphrey movement developed.

From 1926: About 2,800 raucous Spokane residents took advantage of $6 railroad excursion fares and departed for Seattle, Tacoma and Portland over the holiday weekend.

That was $6, round trip.

So many people scooped up the bargain fares that it was hard to find much peace and quiet on the trains. “A crowd of whooping and ukulele-playing youngsters” filled many of the seats.

At the Union Pacific depot, “a motley crew shrieked and yelled goodbye in soprano and bass – with a few babies mingling their farewell – Saturday as the trains steamed out,” reported The Spokesman-Review.

The traffic ran both ways. About 1,200 revelers arrived in Spokane from the coastal cities. Most of them “disappeared soon after arriving, either to the homes of friends or to hotel rooms, from which most of them did not emerge until the shadows began to fall in the evening.”