100 years ago in Spokane: Washington Water Power Co. ends commuter rail service to West Plains

Spokane’s commuter rail system suffered another blow when the Washington Water Power Co. announced it was killing off its interurban rail service to Medical Lake and Cheney.

The reasons were obvious.

“Popularity of automobile travel, together with the fact that the Cheney line showed a $1,600 loss in February … is stated as conclusive evidence that travel on the lines will never warrant continuation of service,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

WWP justified its decision by showing losses of many thousands of dollars every month for the previous six months – even in February, when bad weather should have discouraged auto travel.

All of the tracks west of Garden Spring were scheduled to be yanked up within month or two.

This put commuters from Cheney and Medical Lake in a bind. But two private bus companies immediately announced their intention to start bus routes to those cities. The Auto Interurban Stage Co. said it would schedule its trips specifically to accommodate students at Cheney Normal School, now Eastern Washington University.

From the hygiene beat: Grace Chase, of the U.S. Inter-Departmenal Board of Social Hygiene, visited Spokane and declared its public health department “the best in the state.”

The city had done a good job of closing down “disorderly houses” and disreputable hotels, she said. Her job was to protect “the safety of soldiers and sailors” in places with military bases.

Now, she said, country dance halls, which allow minors “to dance until early hours of the morning,” were the most “fruitful sources of juvenile delinquency.”