Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The dean of Spokane’s All Saints Episcopal Cathedral weighed in on the subject of “ragging,” or dancing, to ragtime music.

He wrote in the church newsletter that “dancing itself is a healthful and beautiful exercise,” but not when it is “degraded” and made a “menace to morals.”

He quoted a lady member of his flock, who sent him a letter that said, “This dance is by far the most disgusting practice that I have ever known respectable people to even countenance in my entire lifetime – and I am 40 years old. That it originated in the brothels of the underworld, where it was created for a purpose, no one makes any attempt to deny.”

Meanwhile, a new city ordinance was being considered which would impose a fine of up to $100 and a stint in jail for miscreants who “rag” or do the “turkey trot.”

From the military beat: About 300 troops from Fort Missoula were on the way to Fort George Wright in Spokane to replace the troops of the 25th Infantry that had recently sailed to Hawaii.

This would bring the fort’s total troop numbers to 600.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1973: Dixy Lee Ray was appointed by President Richard Nixon to be the first woman to head the Atomic Energy Commission.