Camp money 100 years ago in The Record
Friday, Oct. 26, 1917
“Troy this afternoon suffered from an aerial bombardment that not alone created considerable surprise on the part of residents but caused a general turn-out of its entire population, both young and old, to witness the unusual event,” The Record reports.
The airplane doesn’t mean Trojans harm, however, but its pilot wants them to buy more Liberty Bonds to support the U.S. war against Germany. Phillip Boyer drops Liberty Loan leaflets over the city as his plane, piloted by Caleb Bragg, flies overhead shortly after noon. The airmen took off from New York City at 10 a.m. to drop leaflets at stops up the Hudson River.
“According to a pre-arrangement, a white sheet was to be displayed on a barge off the foot of Broadway as a sign for landing,” our reporter notes, “but the machine came from Albany so swiftly that it was impossible to get the sign out in time.
“After circling the vicinity several times, the pilot landed on the river opposite the Watervliet arsenal. He later flew north to the scheduled landing, and left the city for the south at 1:30 p.m.”
The flight is meant as a cautionary tale as well as a spur to bond sales. “The fact that the airplane which encircled the city time and again could have carried death dealing and destructive bombs which would literally have ‘wiped the city off the map’ was borne home in a manner otherwise impossible, and showed the people the ease with which enemy machines could come here from New York.”
The latest bond sale total as this evening’s edition goes to press is $5,965,700. At the current rate of sales, Liberty Loan organizers are confident that Troy will meet its $7,231,000 quota by the end of the drive tomorrow night.
In a move certainly calculated to boost his reelection chances next month, Mayor Cornelius F. Burns makes a personal donation of $1,700 to Troy’s troops in Massachusetts and South Carolina. His gift is equivalent in buying power to just over $31,000 in 2017 money.
The mayor acted in response to Dr. Joseph H. Odell’s investigation of soldiers’ living conditions at Camp Devens in Ayer MA and Camp Wadsworth in Spartansburg SC. Odell reports that the troops are lacking “lumber and everything made with this supply,” as well as dishes, pails, adhesive plasters and foot powder.
“The Troy commands are practically without a dollar in their treasury,” Odell explains, “and unless Trojans come forward with funds many such ‘luxuries,’ for such they are to the soldiers, will have to be foregone.”