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Past opinions provide perspective

Tue., April 4, 2017

Looking Back reviews opinions published in The Spokesman-Review during this week in history.

The Great War, April 5, 1917

As the United States was about to enter the war in Europe, an S-R editorial pondered the fate of Germans aliens on American soil.

“The problem confronts our government of dealing with nearly a million alien subjects of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Their conduct will determine their treatment. If they are discreet and law-abiding, their distressing situation will be respected. They will be protected in life and property.

“If they engage in plots against the peace and safety of individual citizens or communities, if they offer obstruction to preparedness measures, if they serve as spies or try to … blow up arsenals and factories or destroy railroads bridges or tunnels, they will be regarded as dangerous criminals and prosecuted with summary vigor in the courts. Prison or the gallows will be their fate, according to the characters of their crimes.”

NATO formed, April 6, 1949

The formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization prompted this S-R editorial.

“The formal signing of the North Atlantic pact should be looked upon as a promising development. Those who see in the adoption of this agreement a competitive activity to that United Nations are picking at threads on the garment of peace.

“There is exclusiveness in the search for better world conditions. Had the League of Nations been supplemented with some vigorous parallel movement then there would not have been a vacuum when the league failed. Similarly, the North Atlantic pact is a reinforcing element in the structure of peace that United Nations is seeking to build.”

It concluded: “The Atlantic treaty is inherently an agreement to pool national resources for the creation of the maximum force, economic or military, to defend the ideal of democratic government. There is no assurance in the Atlantic treaty, but there is hope.”

King assassination, April 5, 1968

An S-R editorial addresses the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis:

“The murder of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is a tragic event for all America. The nation as a whole, however, should not be blamed for this dastardly or hateful act of violence on the part of one or several individuals.

“As the country’s best known and most effective Negro leader in the cause of human rights for all Negro citizens, Dr. King has had a following that must not now despair. It is to be hoped that the human frustrations and anger that could arise in reaction to the loss of Dr. King may be tempered by the kind of judgment he so often exercised in pursuit of his aims.”

It concluded: “As a preacher of the doctrine of nonviolence, Dr. King realized what violence can do to a community and a nation in a period of tensions such as we are now undergoing. His memory can best be served by a close allegiance to the principles of law observance and the maintenance of public order in the achievement of the changes this nation still needs if true justice is to be secured for all our people.”