100 years ago in The Record
Monday, April 23, 1917
“If wartime conditions prevail late in the summer and in the fall an unprecedented political situation in Rensselaer county is predicted,” The Record reports today. The U.S. declared war on Germany on April 6. Since it’s unlikely that American forces will reach Europe in large numbers until next year, wartime conditions can be expected to prevail this fall unless the European powers, which have been at war since 1914, settle matters themselves. Under wartime conditions, leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties in Rensselaer County have been informally discussing an electoral truce that would see no contested elections this fall. Republicans in Troy would not challenge Mayor Cornelius F. Burns’s bid for a fourth term, nor Democratic control of the common council, while Democrats would not challenge Republican control of the county board of supervisors. “The scheme is yet in the embryo and leaders of the dominant parties will undoubtedly assert they have not discussed it,” our reporter writes, “but they can not say they have thought of it. “If the community is disturbed by war and the people regardless of political faith are working toward a common national end, and aiding the federal government in every way devisable, it is, according to reliable information, rather unlikely they will be asked to give more than passing consideration to local political issues.”
Not every incumbent would be assured personally of reelection, but each seat in the council or board, as well as the county’s seats in the state legislature, would remain under the control of the party that holds it now.
If the truce takes effect, it will be because politicians can think of better ways to spend money during wartime than on election campaigns.
“It is realized at the outset that such an arrangement would draw from political channels a lot of money that might be utilized advantageously in the sustenance of the home defense, the support of the families of soldiers in the service and in alleviating the condition of those who would suffer beyond others as the result of the war,” our writer notes.
Both parties reportedly are negotiating from positions of strength. Mayor Burns and the Democratic council majority are considered unassailable in Troy, while county Republicans are confident of holding the board under any circumstance.
Closing on an editorial note, our writer speculates that the truce may be opposed by “those gentlemen, whether they be leaders or ward heelers, to whom the handling of a ‘ yellow dog’ fund is considerably more fascinating than patriotism.” Such politicians must contest elections regularly, for “their prestige might otherwise vaporize.”