100 years ago in Spokane: U.S. marshals were called in to help quell railroad strike unrest in Hillyard

About 50 additional U.S. marshals were on the way to Hillyard to preserve order in the increasingly ugly rail shop workers’ strike.

Several attacks on strikebreakers had been reported in recent days. Great Northern officials maintained that strikers were openly violating the federal injunction against picketing and intimidation of replacement workers. Strikers were gathering at the shop entrances. Marshals were now being “specifically instructed to disperse these gatherings.”

Elmer Richardson, a strikebreaker from St. Paul, was still being treated at Sacred Heart hospital for internal injuries after three men shouted a racial slur at him and then beat him severely.

Another strikebreaker said he was followed by a crowd when he disembarked from a streetcar and walked to the shops. Two shots were fired over his head and he ran. A Hillyard police officer helped him get to the shops.

Nationally, there was some reason for optimism. Union chiefs came up with a proposal to end the strike. They presented the proposal to the railroad leaders in New York.

Such negotiations had previously been futile, but pressure was growing on both sides for a settlement. The strikers were willing to return to their jobs, but wanted to retain their seniority rights. So far, railroad heads had rejected the idea.