100 years ago in The Record
Sunday, March 18, 1917
“Unless all signs of the times are falsified, and unless the predictions are belied, the supreme test of the patriotism of American citizens is coming in the near future,” the Troy Sunday Budget proclaims on today’s editorial page.
This has been a suspenseful weekend in both national and foreign affairs. While the U.S. remains at the brink of war with Germany, the sinking this week of the American steamship Algonquin by a German submarine strikes many Americans as the final straw that will force the nation to declare war.
“To all nations there come occasions when honor commands sturdiness, not only in speech but in action,” the Budget argues, “Such an occasion now confronts our country. Reluctantly, but with rigid determination, we must pursue a course that will almost certainly result in war.”
While the Algonquin was unarmed, President Woodrow Wilson has ordered American merchant ships to arm themselves and open fire on submarines to protect themselves. Germany is expected to treat an American ship firing on one of its U-boats as an act of war.
Should war come, “the responsibility will not rest upon our country. Germany, desperate and aggressive because it is desperate, has, after innumerable conspiracies have been carried out in this country … now, in defiance of the laws and customs of civilization, openly, barbarously and with malicious purpose, provoked war.”
The imminence of war colors the Budget’s coverage of the week’s big national news story, the imminent nationwide railroad strike.
Railroad unions were scheduled to walk off their jobs last night in an attempt to force employers to implement the Adamson Law mandating an eight-hour workday. Union leaders decided yesterday to postpone the strike for 48 hours.
“It will now be Monday night before this country knows whether the leaders of the railroad brotherhoods decided whether in the final analysis they will cast their lot with their country or with their union,” the Budget announces.
By threatening to strike, the railroad unions have upset the united front the nation needs to show because of “the selfish desire of a handful of men … who appreciate that the most vital time to strike is at a time when the Nation can least afford it, when the safety of the Nation hangs in the balance.”
Suggesting that Germany may have planted this “seed of discontent,” the Budget claims that “If the Kaiser himself had planned this he could not have asked more than to tie up the railroads of the country on the eve of war.”
For country’s sake, the Sunday paper urges the unions to stand down.