Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Spokane Social Science Club learned the alarming fact that 200 elementary schoolchildren in Spokane come to school “without a sufficient breakfast” or no breakfast at all.

Worse, many of those children did not have a sufficient lunch, either.

Deputy prosecuting attorney C.C. Dill, formerly a high school teacher, reported these findings after his committee had obtained the information from teachers at the various schools.

The hungry children were not evenly distributed throughout Spokane.

The schools with the most were: Columbia with 50; Frances Willard with 28; Hawthorne with 20; Washington with 18; and Lincoln with 12.

Dill explained that Columbia School was in the north part of the city “near a settlement of Austrians, many of whom have been out of work during the winter.” Washington’s relatively high number was “owing to its nearness to Peaceful Valley.”

The committee planned to meet with the school board and ask that some form of relief be extended to the hungry students.

Dill, by the way, went on to become a U.S. representative and U.S. senator.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1973: The U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, legalized abortions using a trimester approach.