Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The women of Spokane were not pleased with a judge’s ruling in a Massachusetts divorce case, in which the judge said “the husband is lord and master of the house” and “he is entitled to meals at any hour he wants them.”

A reporter went out and talked to Spokane club women about this ruling and found that the majority were of the opinion that this was bunk.

They said that a wife should offer to “compromise with her husband,” maybe, but should “never be obliged to submit to his whims, bordering on obstinacy in many cases.”

They said that if a husband could demand a meal at any hour, chaos would reign in the kitchen.

They also took exception to the judge’s ruling that said the husband, not the wife, should be the one who decides whether to discharge domestic servants. Spokane women said, in essence, that the husband would have no idea whether or not a domestic servant was doing her job well. One wife of a Spokane professional said it would be akin to her deciding whether to fire the clerks at his office.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1961: Mildred E. Gillars, also known as “Axis Sally,” was paroled from a federal prison in West Virginia after serving 11 years for treason for her propaganda broadcasts from Nazi Germany during World War II.