100 years ago in Eastern Washington: A ‘Wobbly’ raid, air mail innovations and a new Vaudeville show were making headlines

Seven members of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) were arrested during a Wobbly meeting in Colfax.

Police raided the meeting, confiscated Wobbly literature and jailed the seven men for “unlawful assemblage.”

The next day, when rumors swirled that another Wobbly meeting was planned in Colfax, local farmers “filled the streets.”

“It was to break up this meeting that the farmers gathered,” a correspondent from Colfax reported.

From the postal beat: Three noteworthy letters were delivered in Spokane during the afternoon. They were noteworthy not because of their content, but because of their method of delivery.

They were air-mail letters, which arrived 24 hours earlier than the usual train delivery.

These letters were part of a special delivery experiment in which letters were sent from the East Coast and marked “by airplane,” then compared with regular delivery. They were flown from New York to Salt Lake City and then sent on to Spokane.

The nation’s Assistant Postmaster General said it was part of a plan to test the feasibility of regular air mail service.

From the vaudeville beat: “Shuffle Along,” described as an “all-colored musical comedy,” found a “wildly appreciative” audience at the Spokane Auditorium.

The show had been a record-breaking hit in New York. The touring version featured the original 50-member New York cast.

“It is primarily and almost exclusively a dancing show and it is doubtful if Spokane ever saw such stepping before,” The Spokesman-Review’s critic wrote.