Election expenses
Friday, Nov. 16, 1917
“There certainly was no doubt left in the mind of State Highway Commissioner Duffy to-day concerning the sentiment of Troy, Albany, Watervliet, Rensselaer, Green Island and, for that matter, ‘all the country round,’ on the subject of free bridges,” The Record reports.
Two separate delegations of Trojans – one representing the city government and led by Mayor Cornelius F. Burns, the other representing the Chamber of Commerce and local businesses, fill two special train cars to Albany for today’s hearing on a proposal from the Albany and Rensselaer county boards of supervisors for the elimination of toll bridges across the Hudson and Mohawk rivers.
“All the speakers declared toll bridges antiquated and oppressive,” our reporter writes, “The great hardship the toll system is to the army workers who have to pay every time they cross a toll bridge was dwelt upon, and the financial ability of the state to take over the properties was demonstrated.”
Among the bridges the petitioners want made public are the Congress Street and Green Island bridges. Through attorney William J. Roche, the Troy and West Troy Bridge Company, which owns the Congress Street bridge, informs the hearing that it doesn’t oppose free bridges, but since “the bridges are very profitable properties … in any movement to take them over those who have interests in them demand hearing.”
Mayor Burns tells the hearing that “the abolition of toll on all bridges is demanded as a positive public necessity, and that if all in favor of such action should appear the capital building would not be large enough to hood them.
“It is a shame that the business of communities should be held up, and travel from all over the country interfered with by the antiquated toll system. Troy does not seek to get any particular bridge made free, is in no deal for such a purpose, and wants all the bridges mentioned made free.”
Earlier this morning, the mayor met one of his civic obligations by filing his statement of expenses for the 1917 election campaign.
Burns reports that he spent a total of $750 during the campaign season, including a $500 donation to the Democratic county committee. The total is equivalent in buying power to more than $13,700 in 2017 money.
The mayor was re-elected to an unprecedented fourth two-year term, easily beating back Republican challenger George T. Morris. City treasurer Joseph T. Foxell, who was also reelected, is the only candidate on today’s list to have spent more than Burns. Foxell’s statement shows that he spent a total of $998.25 on the campaign.