100 years ago in Spokane: In typical election style, both sides predicted victory on the eve of the city’s great jitney-streetcar vote

Both sides were optimistic on the eve of the city’s historic streetcar merger vote.

City hall officials were predicting a 3-to-1 yes vote, which would mean that the two private streetcar systems would merge into one and the fare would remain at 6 cents.

However, the head of the city’s association of jitney drivers was equally optimistic that voters would reject the merger. The plan included a ban on jitneys (private buses) after the first of the year.

“The jitney men will put a man on every poll to distribute literature,” he said. “If the election does go against us, we will do our very best to give the city the best possible service until January 1, when the present license expires.”

The Chronicle’s editorial page was unequivocally in favor of the merger. It said a “no” vote would “make Spokane a jitney town instead of a city boasting one of the finest electric railway systems in America.”

From the vaudeville beat: The Teenie Weenie Revue was on the vaudeville bill at the Pantages Theater. It consisted of six children, 6 and under, who “display unusual talent in a variety of dancing numbers.”

The Spokesman-Review critic wondered, however, if audiences could overlook the “commercializing of the innocence and natural talents of tots who ought still to be in the nursery or at best in kindergarten.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

2011: President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden during a U.S. commando operation. (It was early May 2 in Pakistan, where the al-Qaida leader met his end.)