100 years ago: Spokane’s divorce rate higher than any place outside Japan, editorial laments

Spokane was becoming increasingly alarmed about what the newspapers called the “divorce evil.”

The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran an editorial in which it pointed out that so far in 1920, “one divorce was asked for every three marriages licensed in Spokane County.”

A story elsewhere in the Chronicle asserted that Japan was the only country in the world with a higher divorce rate than Spokane County. The story added that Spokane County was not an outlier; the rate was nearly the same in the rest of Washington and the other Pacific Coast states.

The Chronicle’s editors suggested several remedies including the following:

• “Education and legal restriction to keep men and women from rushing blindfold into the marriage contract.”

• Making divorces legally harder to obtain.

• Enforcing a stronger “lazy husband law,” which was a law that required men to provide for their families.

The Chronicle concluded by saying that the the state must “fight and fight hard for its homes, its honor and its happiness.”

From the forgery beat: George Sato visited Spokane and left “a trail of worthless checks” before leaving.

Police believe he has been working his way through the West, beginning in Texas and issuing forged checks through California, Nevada and Oregon.

In Spokane, he left a check for $25,000 at the Exchange National Bank “for collection.” The bank president grew suspicious and telegraphed the Klamath Falls bank, on which the check was drawn. The Klamath Falls bank wired back to say the check was no good. When Sato came back to collect his $25,000, the bank president showed him the telegraph. Sato relied that it was a small bank and it apparently did not want to “let loose of so much money at once.” Sato said he would contact them and straighten it out.

Sato never returned, and Burns Agency detectives were on his trail.