The Great Baking Powder Confidence Game
A charismatic stranger swindled Spokane canvassers out of their commissions, leaving them with piles of product and no pay.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
SPOKANE, Jan. 6.—As a result of weeks' stay in Spokane of C. Schanacker, there is about a ton of baking powder scattered among the families of the town, a thousand or so of plated spoons adorning the boards of the above families and fourteen extremely wrathful canvassers. Representing himself as the advertising agent of the Imperial Baking Powder company of St. Louis, Schanacker took a suite of rooms at the Occidental hotel and prepared to unload his baking powder. He is described as small, smooth-shaven and well-dressed, with a handshake and a smile guaranteed to warm the cockles of the most cold-blooded. Schanacker soon had a band of fourteen workers plying throughout the town taking orders for baking powder at 50 cents per pound. With each pound of baking powder Schanacker agreed to give a dozen plated spoons. The canvassers were to take the orders and turn them over to Schanacker, who was to deliver the goods, collect the money and then pay the canvasser 12 ½ percent for his trouble. The army of workers included two women, and was recruited from all ranks of life. In all, some 1,750 orders were taken in Spokane, and Mr. Schanacker delivered the goods and collected the money. The catch came when Schanacker was to turn over the 12 ½ percent to the canvassers. Schanacker allowed the canvassers to grasp his hand and dwell within the radius of his smile, for a while, and when that did not suffice, grudgingly turned over a few dollars. Schanacker is supposed to have left Spokane Monday. A delegation of four from the canvassers made a call at police headquarters to demand that the police stop all trains and search them for Schanacker, but Captain Coverly refused, as the railroad companies might object.
“Schanacker is described as small, smooth-shaven and well-dressed, with a handshake and a smile guaranteed to warm the cockles of the most cold-blooded.”
Gig economy workers in the early 20th century faced similar struggles to modern contractors—specifically, the challenge of reclaiming earned wages from an elusive employer who holds all the leverage. While the medium has shifted from door-to-door baking powder sales to digital platforms, the vulnerability of the worker to 'platform' wage theft remains a persistent economic theme.
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