100 years ago: S-R editorial page defends college women accused of ‘high crimes against romance’

The Spokesman-Review’s editorial page offered a Valentine’s Day defense of the much-maligned “college woman.”

The editorial said that “innumerable sins and high crimes against romance have been laid at the door of the woman college student.” For instance, a recent wire story had suggested that attending college was bad for a woman’s marriage prospects.

“In spite of all that has been done in coeducational colleges to offset this notion, it has persisted, and the picture of the woman collegian as an austere and frigid Minerva is hard to erase,” said the editorial.

However, the editorial pointed out that a college woman was responsible for one of the most romantic elements of American culture: the “vogue of the valentine.” A Mount Holyoke college coed created the first mass-marketed Valentine’s Day cards.

From the war beat: The SR’s editorial page also contained one of the most ominous warnings yet about the future.

“The strong current of events is sweeping the United States into war, or a state of war, with Germany. We cannot, in honor and self-respect, withdraw our flag from the high seas that roll between us and Europe. Not even the imperious threats of the warlike German empire should alter our just course in the pursuit and maintenance of our lawful rights.

“Germany’s demands are beyond the law, her statesmen know it and the voice of the neutral world condemns their outlaw acts. Our duty is plain, and when the American people reflect upon the issue that is thrust upon them, they will not falter if Congress and the president are firm.”