100 years ago in The Record

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 1917

Republican mayoral candidate George T. Morris renews his attack on city water works superintendent John M. Diven at a Seventh Ward campaign rally tonight, The Record reports.

Morris presumably enjoyed a good turnout for his speech, since our paper doesn’t bother counting heads. Today’s Record gloated over the poor turnout for Morris last night in the Sixteenth Ward, where fewer than 100 people heard him speak.

Chastised for perceived personal attacks on Democratic incumbent Cornelius F. Burns, Morris has turned his attention to Diven. As a “foreigner,” (i.e. a non-Trojan), Diven shouldn’t have been hired in the first place, Morris argues. Worse yet, Diven uses city property on city time to conduct the business of a “foreign corporation” as secretary of the American Water Works Association.

“How much of Mr. Diven’s time is taken by this private enterprise of his?” Morris asks tonight, “Who takes care of his voluminous mail received each day concerning the business of the American Water Works association?

“Is it not a fact that a building owned by the city in the rear of Mr. Diven’s office which used to be rented by the city to private parties for a substantial income, is now taken for storage purposes by the American Water Works Association? And by what authority does Mr. Diven take a foreign corporation into the offices of one of the city departments and transact its business there?”

In a recent response to Morris, Diven explained that he paid an assistant secretary out of his salary from the AWWA, even though the assistant doubled as stenographer for the city water works department.

Morris characterizes Diven’s use of city property for AWWA business as “a trespass upon the property of the people, a trespass upon their rights, behind their backs.”

Pulse of the People

Today’s letters column includes an attack on Morris by “American,” who finds the Republican’s “holy horror of foreigners” preposterous. The Record allows pseudonyms as long as writers include their real names with their letters.

“It is somewhat strange to hear this kind of talk in a city like Troy where there are so many persons who were born either in other states or in other countries,” American writes, while “Hundreds of men have gone out from Troy to other places” to make their careers.

“It is a matter of utter indifference to the people of Troy whether the superintendent of the water works or any other officer was born in Troy, or in Catskill, or in South Carolina, or ‘over the seas,’ so long as he is a capable and worthy man,” American insists.