100 years ago in Spokane: Police show off arsenal of machine guns and sawed-off shotguns to dissuade would-be rioters

The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran a front page photo of 31 Spokane police officers armed with sawed-off shotguns and machine guns.

The headline read: “Just Let Anyone Start a Riot Now; Cops Are Ready For ’Em.”

This reflected the alarm – and downright hysteria – over the events that took place in Centralia several months earlier in which an American Legion parade on Armistice Day erupted in gunfire. An account of the trial in Montesano, Washington, in which several Wobbly suspects were on trial for murder, was just to the left of the photo.

Spokane police Chief W.J. Weir and Spokane Commissioner of Public Safety J.H. Tilsley posed with the armed officers.

From the robbery beat: A night watchman flushed out four “boy robbers” from E.S. Burgan and Son’s store, as they were helping themselves to a “complete outfit of guns, revolvers, sheeplined clothing, hatchets, flashlights and watches.”

The boys scattered and the watchman was unable to find them. However, he called police who found two of the boys, who were still hiding in the store.

One escaped, but police caught the other one, who had a couple of watches and pocket knife in his possession. That boy was