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

100 years ago in Spokane: Phones were relatively new, but the rates were already increasing and riling up residents

 (Spokane Daily Chronicle archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

Spokane citizens were up in arms about an issue that affected nearly everyone: a substantial hike in phone rates.

The Home Telephone Company planned to increase rates at the beginning of the next month. Spokane city commissioners were trying to prevent it. They were hampered, however, by a federal court order that prevented them from “interfering in any way” with the company’s rate hike plan.

The city commissioners remained defiant and expressed their willingness to ignore the court’s ruling.

“If Mr. Geraghty (the city’s attorney) and I go to jail because of this resolution, I will expect other members of the commission to see that we do not go hungry,” commissioner Charles Fleming said.

From the missing persons beat: Mystery surrounded the disappearance of Spokane optician J.P. Luxmore, whose abandoned car was found near Kettle Falls, Washington, on the Columbia River. He had not been seen for days.

A supposed “suicide note” found near the river turned out to be a hoax, written by a group of four high school students.

It wasn’t too difficult to determine that it was a hoax, since the note included the line, “I herewith bequeath all my property to the Kettle Falls High School.”