100 years ago in The Record

Friday, April 6, 1917

“America is entering the greatest war of its history,” The Record reports after the House of Representatives votes early this morning to declare war on Germany. Following an 82- 6 vote in the Senate, the lower house approves the war resolution, 373-50. The no votes included 32 Republicans, sixteen Democrats, and one member apiece of the Socialist and Prohibition parties. President Woodrow Wilson signs the resolution to make war official at 1:13 p.m. In Troy, Mayor Cornelius F. Burns issues a proclamation urging citizens to “stand behind the government of our beloved country in the solemn step which has reluctantly been taken. “The most extreme pacifists cannot in truth or with justice assert that the position in which the American people now find themselves has been invited by a single word or act on our part, but, on the contrary, it has been plain to the whole world that through our peace-inclined President and people every means that it has been possible to employ to avoid entanglement and conflict has been exhausted. “We had hoped to be the one great power that would remain outside the field of clashing arms and human slaughter, through whom peace might be brought about and adjustment of differences made; but fate has ruled otherwise, and we have finally been driven to the sword to defend our rights, preserve our honor and selfrespect and our prestige as a great nation, at a cost the end of which we know not. “I call upon all Trojans to sweep aside questions of race, color or creed, personal feelings and political beliefs, and to stand together until peace be restored, animated by the single motto, ‘America First.’” The mayor asks Trojans to fly the flag from every home and building in the city. He then chairs a meeting to select a home guard committee for Rensselaer County. William Barker jr., Michael Sullivan and Frank B. Twining represent Troy on the committee. Our editors boast that The Record provides more complete coverage of the House war debate than out- of-town papers. The New York City papers on sale this morning went to press at 11 p.m. last night, while the Albany papers went to press at 1 a.m. The Record went to press at 4:30 a.m. On a more sober note, an editorial writer warns that war with Germany will be “no parade” but “a life and death combat” against “the greatest fighting machine in the history of the world.” By comparison, the Civil War was but a “family disagreement,” while the SpanishAmerican War was “little more than the putting down of a riot.”