The Pan Tans: Spokane's Secret Order of Judges, Cops and Councilmen
A police commissioner's confession exposes a sworn club that counted three superior court judges, four councilmen, a deputy prosecutor and a police judge among its members — and the recall petitions start the same week.
Spokane — A movement is on foot for the recall of councilmen who are members of a secret political order, the Pan Tans, unearthed by the confession of Police Commissioner Tuerke. The Federated Men's Club will lead the attack on the Pan Tans, which embraced three superior court judges, a deputy prosecutor, a police judge, four councilmen, a number of police officers, detectives and contractors. "One for All and All for One," is the motto of the organization. Control of city and county government is believed to have been the object of the secret order.
One of the first matters to come before the grand jury when it resumes its sessions next month will be this secret club.
Gov. Hay, when asked regarding the report that his appointment of J. Stanley Webster to a superior court judgeship in Spokane county was the result of personal work of members of the mysterious order of Pan Tans, denied that the appointment was made in payment of any debt of gratitude or knowingly influenced by the order. The governor states his first intimation that such an order existed was gained through the newspapers.
“"One for All and All for One," is the motto of the organization. Control of city and county government is believed to have been the object of the secret order.”
A secret society woven through the courthouse, the police department and the council, exposed by an insider's confession and answered with a recall campaign, is the machine-politics story that never quite goes out of fashion. Spokane in 1909 was a railroad and timber city where the line between the lodge hall and city hall was thin; the same questions about who really runs a city, and how the public finds out, are asked at every modern council meeting. Note also the governor learning of it from the newspapers — the era's version of finding out on social media.
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