A Temperance Bill Debate Turns Into Two Fistfights in Olympia
A Spokane legislator and a Spokane newspaperman trade blows on the House floor over a local-option petition.
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.
OLYMPIA, Feb. 9.—Two fistfights on the floor of the House took place as a result of the local option fight last evening between Representative McArthur of Spokane and a Spokane newspaperman named Joe Smith. McArthur said Smith had misrepresented him and had snatched a petition from Spokane people, against the passage of the local option bill, from his hands. Smith swung and hit the legislator on the jaw, sending him to the floor. Joe Wilson separated the pair and Smith left the room. When he came back for his hat, McArthur went at him and evened up matters by giving the newspaperman a bad black eye before the sergeant-at-arms restored order.
“Smith swung and hit the legislator on the jaw, sending him to the floor.”
Local option was the era's grinding fight over saloons and Prohibition, and it spilled from the ballot box onto the House floor. Modern legislatures still wrestle with alcohol regulation and press-politician friction, though the disputes usually end in subpoenas rather than black eyes.
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