Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

100 years ago in Spokane: Obscure ‘committee’ threatens German-American leader

Adolph Munter, a leader in the region’s German-American community, received anonymous threats and accusations of being in league with the kaiser. (Spokesman-Review archives)

Federal authorities were investigating threats to Spokane attorney Adolph Munter, a leader in the region’s German-American community.

Someone sent him a postcard that read, “You buy your Liberty bonds and do it quick; and keep your mouth shut. Signed, The Committee.”

He has also been told that a plan was afoot “to pay me a visit at my house some night.” Munter said he did not know exactly what that meant, but he said “it looks somewhat serious.”

Someone else told him that the word was being spread that he was in the pay of the German kaiser.

“Whoever is responsible for that statement is an infamous liar,” Munter said.

From the labor beat: The federal Department of Labor received protests about the fact that the railroads hired women to work in the Spokane rail yards.

This was controversial, apparently, because there were those who felt it was taking jobs away from men. However, the reason the railroads hired women in the first place was because of a wartime manpower shortage.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

2005: The recently created video-sharing website YouTube uploaded its first clip, “Me at the Zoo,” which showed YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of an elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo.