Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane’s infatuation with Theodore Roosevelt reached its highest level yet when the feisty Bull Moose Party candidate arrived on a campaign swing.

The Spokane Daily Chronicle said he was “cheered repeatedly by immense throngs” topping 20,000. His speech was filled with “Teddyisms,” and a “mere stenographic report fails to do justice to the situation.”

His speech was peppered with “hot shots” like this: “I would rather see the cost of production enhanced than see it kept low by underpaid labor.” 

The excitement was so high during his outdoor speech at the downtown Masonic Temple that a woman in the thick of the crowd fainted.

“The colonel noted the incident immediately and stopped his speech,” reported the Chronicle. “He personally directed that the woman be taken to the door of the Masonic Temple and there revived.”

The former president praised the people of Spokane – which had always been a Teddy stronghold – and called them “the real progressives.”

The Spokesman-Review abandoned any pretense of impartiality in its main story, referring to him as “the human dynamo” and “the man who is leading the fight for honest politics.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1776: The second Continental Congress made the term “United States” official.