100 years ago in Spokane: Letter writer decries ‘society ladies’ recruiting men for World War I

An anonymous letter writer who called himself “Jack Tar” went on a tirade against the Spokane “society ladies” who had launched a local Marine recruiting drive.

“I have an honorable discharge from the navy and I intend to re-enlist, but I will not do so through the agency of a bunch of women who call themselves society ladies, whose only aim is to get a lot of cheap advertising, and who will resort to any means to get their names and photos in the paper,” he wrote. “Don’t think your campaign is going to cause any great rush for the recruiting office. On the other hand, it is offensive to any man with ordinary intelligence to try to make him think that he has to be urged on by women.”

He also said “a man would have to be pretty soft-headed to fall for your game.”

If he was trying to provoke a response from the women, he succeeded.

Mrs. Charles Albert wrote that the recruiting work was being done by all kinds of women, not just society women, and they have been “quietly working, day after day.”

“They do not merit the sneers of a man who evidently does not know his subject,” she wrote.

She also asked if he “remembers that his mother was a woman, and what her influence meant in his life.”