Opinions from past add perspective

Editor’s note: Looking Back reviews opinions published in The Spokesman-Review during this week in history.

Feminine aggression – April 20, 1946: An S-R editorial examined a report of female students making advances on former soldiers at the University of Michigan, noting:

“It seems that feminine wolves among the co-eds are surprising the bill-of-rights boys with their forthright chasing after the men to such an extent that it leaves them little time to study. One 21-year-old veteran – it’s still hard to get used to the fact that ‘veteran’ can be that young – confessed his bewilderment by saying the girls were ‘pretty wild all right. They’ve taken over the men’s smoking lounges and are wearing men’s clothes. Now they want to take us over, too.’”

It concluded: “The adult curbstone observer on the home front once had to get used to the free and easy ways of the boys in uniform. Now he learns that some of these same boys are shocked to learn the boldness of the college girls. Maybe the veteran is becoming what the word implies.”

Red aggression – April 21, 1966: An S-R editorial was not pleased with U.S. Sen. J.W. Fulbright, who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Commission, and took the testimony of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara . It noted:

“The Arkansas Democrat had tried to leave the impression – again – that the Communist Viet Cong was a harmless political movement in a ‘civil war’ in South Viet Nam.

“Secretary McNamara has been known to be wrong in the past on several aspects of the war in Southeast Asia. But he certainly was right this week in telling Mr. Fulbright about Red aggression. Mr. McNamara said that about 22,000 men in the South Viet Nam fighting are now taking orders from Hanoi, on a day-by-day, hour-by-hour basis.”

Spokane eyesore – April 20, 1976: The City Council planned to hear a proposal to fill a massive sand pit at Francis Avenue and Maple Street with garbage and other debris, and then pave it over with blacktop for parking. An editorial described it:

“The pit is about a block wide and several blocks long. It measures 40 feet deep. It actually contains two holes, one on the south end and one on the north end.”

The editorial continued: “Under study is how long it would take to fill the hole and this point will have much to do with the overall proposal. Some discomfort from odor and unsightliness can be stood if the operation is not too lengthy.”

The last reform – April 23, 1986: An S-R editorial wasn’t optimistic about achieving federal tax reform. It began:

“When President Reagan issued his visionary call for tax reform one year ago, the goal was to achieve simplicity and fairness in a convoluted tax structure riddled with favoritism. Now, that goal seems an impossible dream. To no one’s surprise but to everyone’s disappointment, tax reform has degenerated into a complex contest among special-interest groups, each fighting to enhance or preserve its wealth and privileges.”

However, Congress did pass a tax reform bill in 1986, and the president signed it. It’s the last significant tax reform effort.

For more details, see today’s Robert J. Samuelson column.