100 years ago today in Spokane: Relief in sight as rail union approves negotiation tactic

A breakthrough was announced in the rail shop workers strike, after a union policy committee authorized the union head to negotiate individual “peace agreements” with all of the nation’s railroads.

This was widely seen as a prelude to ending the long strike. The strike had an outsized impact on Spokane, a hub for four railroads. About 1,800 Spokane workers had been on strike for months.

There was still no guarantee that the union could reach agreements with all of the railroads, or that members would ratify those agreements.

Yet it was the first glimmer of hope in one of the most disruptive strikes in Spokane’s history.

From the safe cracking beat: Yeggmen (safecrackers) broke into a safe at an unlikely venue: Lewis and Clark High School.

They broke into the school in the middle of the night and then used a sledgehammer to break the knob off the safe. They escaped with cash totaling $575 and war bonds and war stamps with nearly as much value.

Why would a school have that much cash? Most of it consisted of proceeds from chemistry lab fees and tuition from out-of-town students. The bonds and stamps belonged to a teacher.

Police had no leads, but said it appeared to be people familiar with safe cracking.

From the election beat: Arthur Hooper and Frank Kinsell were running neck and neck in the Republic primary for Spokane County prosecutor. This race had generated plenty of controversy, in part because Kinsell had expressed sympathy for the Ku Klux Klan.

The two candidates were separated by less than a hundred votes and a winner would not be known for days.

Harry Cohn, who made headlines by claiming “Wet interests” tried to bribe him, was running a distant third.