100 years ago in Spokane: Chronicle declares Prohibition a big success

The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran a pair of stories asserting – a bit prematurely – that Prohibition was a big success.

The first story claimed that Prohibition enforcement was growing stronger every year and that agents had made 35% more arrests in 1922 than in 1921. The article implied that agents were finally getting the upper hand on bootleggers.

The second story sported a headline that said “Prohibition Saved America.” It quoted a federal Prohibition commissioner as saying that Prohibition was the key factor in America’s commercial resurgence.

The commissioner said that in pre-Prohibition days, it was common to see “50 saloons in a few blocks” in a city. Now, he said, those buildings were occupied with “business firms that are a benefit to the public and the nation.” This created a “wholesome effect on business conditions in general.”

The Chronicle’s editors were clearly in agreement with this. They ran an editorial the same day which declared that Prohibition was “one of the greatest steps in the progress of America,” and that any congressman who would consent to its repeal “is not fit to represent this community.”

From the law beat: A small item in the Chronicle mentioned that a certain Ralph Foley was one of 14 seniors set to graduate from Gonzaga University.

He was the class president, and he said he planned to “complete a law course” after graduation.

Nobody could have known that Ralph Foley would eventually become a Superior Court judge for 34 years, and the father of U.S. Speaker of the House Thomas S. Foley. Nor could they know that Gonzaga’s library would someday be named the Ralph E. and Helen Higgins Foley Center Library.