100 years ago in The Record
Tuesday, Aug. 14, 1917
Troy Boys’ Club superintendent Charles H. Woodhall tells a Rotary Club gathering this afternoon that “boys are the biggest problem which confronts the world to- day.”
That’s an interesting statement to make when much of the world is at war, including the U.S., but Woodhall explains that his belief “had been made deeper … by needs which the war of this and the other countries had revealed.”
Woodhall believes that boys should be put to work at a young age, when not in school. He hopes to persuade the Troy Rotary to join him in advocating a change to state labor law that would allow employers to hire boys as young as twelve during the summer months.
The law currently allows work certificates only to boys who’ve finished eighth grade. Woodhall believes, however that “any boy over twelve years of age should have a job when he is not in school.” He contends that “it is good for their character and their future success to force them to work.”
On the other hand, Woodhall argues that “no boys under ten years of age should be allowed to sell papers or deliver groceries or do any of the other things which men persist in employing them for.”
CITY BUYING COAL AT HIGHER PRICES
Wartime demand is driving up the price of coal for municipal purchasers, The Record reports after today’s meeting of the city board of contact and supply. The city contracts with the Peterson & Packer company to provide coal for the central and southern sections of Troy for a total of $14,400, an increase of $1,100, or nearly 10%, over last year. The board is still taking bids for the northern section. Frank M. Wheeler wants $7.55 a ton for egg coal, and $7.85 a ton for larger sizes, but insists on “the usual conditions which are being included in coal contracts wherever there is a possibility of them being affected by the war.”
DRAFT DAYS
Troy’s three draft districts are nearly halfway to meeting their quotas of men to be provided for the U. S. military after another day of physical examinations and exemption claims.
The first district draft board is heartened by the brave gesture of one man who declines to claim an exemption despite claiming that “the discharge of firearms, or explosion of even pyrotechnics made him nervous.”
Board members must disappoint another man who shows up expecting to receive a $100 enlistment bounty. The unidentified draftee “evidently had in mind the Civil War days,” but proves a good sport by declining to claim an exemption.