100 years ago in The Record
Sunday, July 1, 1917
By order of Governor Charles S. Whitman, today is “Foodsaving Sunday” in churches throughout New York State. In Troy, The Record reports that “the pastors of the various churches impressed upon the women of their congregations the necessity for the greatest possible conservation of food.” “A foodsaving conscience must be cultivated in the United States to-day by every family and by every individual, if we are to gain the victory in this world war,” says Dr. Warren G. Partridge at Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. The U.S. declared war on Germany last April. “The women of America have a stupendous opportunity in this campaign of food economy,” Partridge preaches, “Here is a magnificent opportunity for our wives, mothers, daughters and sisters to help win this war, just as well as the men can help in the trenches and on the firing line. “Now is the time for the women to vie with the soldiers in practiced sacrificial living for the saving of their country.” “Save the Waste and Win the War” is Rev. George C. Wadsworth’s slogan at Christ Episcopal Church. “Is it asking too much that you live sparingly during the war? In this the women of American can play as important a part as the men. The American housewife is as essential as the munition worker, the trolley-car operator or the nurse. Indeed, she who makes one loaf of bread go as far as two loaves went before, deserves our undiluted praise.”
JEWISH WAR RELIEF
Troy’s Jewish population sets itself a fundraising goal of $200 a month for the relief of Jewish war victims in Europe, our paper reports.
The target amount is equivalent in buying power to approximately $6,500 in 2017. The goal is set at a mass meeting today in the Shara Tephilah synagogue, where Isadore Herschfeld tells of “the desolation and suffering which the war has caused the Jewish people.”
“Every Jewish person in the city is asked to help raise the money and a number of the young people have volunteered their services to act as collectors,” our reporter writes.
UNSAFE FOR AUTOCRACY
State senator George B. Wellington tells the congregation of First Presbyterian Church tonight that U.S. troops are headed to Europe to “exterminate if possible the most cowardly assassins, the most shameless poltroons that ever engaged in the game of war.”
While many Americans hope to make the world “safe for democracy,” Wellington wants to make it “unsafe for autocracy,” referring to the Germany monarchy. “Down with kings and emperor and princes and privileged classes; down with them, and down with them for good!”