Jim Kershner’s this day in history
From our archives, 100 years ago
Thomas F. Kane, president of the University of Washington, explained exactly why the varsity rowing team refused a prestigious invitation to compete in England’s Henley Regatta.
Kane, who was in Spokane to address the convention of the Washington Educational Association, said that one of Henley’s rules reads: “No person who has ever soiled his hands by manual labor or who ever performed menial service shall be allowed to row in the Henley Regatta.”
Kane said that the university cannot condone that kind of snobbishness.
He told the delegates that the university believes that no man has ever “soiled” his hands by honest labor and that “no necessary service is menial if done in the best way it can be done.”
From the show beat: The young people of North Yakima so shocked one of the secretaries of the local YMCA that he threatened to shut down the rehearsal of their talent show.
He was appalled by a tango dance, with its “intricate wiggling by two dozen young men and women.”
He threatened to turn the lights off on the rehearsal, but calmer heads prevailed and the rehearsal, and show, continued on schedule.