100 years ago in The Record
Friday, Dec. 28, 1917
Rensselaer County fuel administrator Albert E. Cluett rebukes Troy businesses that have refused to comply with the federal government’s “lightless nights” order, but will not publish the names of offenders unless they again fail to comply at their next opportunity.
In order to save coal used in generating electricity for the U.S. war effort, the government wants businesses to shut off most outdoor lights on Thursdays and Sundays. Troy businesses hoped to be exempt from the order because most of the city’s electricity is generated by water power. Cluett explained last week, however, that the federal order was mandatory for all cities.
“This is not a matter of local concern only,” Cluett clarifies today, “because the hydro-electric power not used to supply lights in Troy can be used in the saving of coal in Albany and Schenectady, where coal has to be burned to supplement the hydro- electric power.”
Troy’s first lightless night was Sunday, December 23. Cluett reports that “about forty business houses in the central part of the city” failed to comply despite ample advance publicity. Over the next two days, Cluett secured promises from proprietors that all the businesses would comply on the next lightless night, December 27.
Last night, 35 businesses failed to comply, many of them repeat offenders. “In cases where the violation was repeated, the Fuel Administration is forced to the conclusion that the failure to comply was willful, and that the patriotism of the offender is seriously open to question,” Cluett writes.
“The Fuel Administration of this county feels that business houses who fail to comply should not profit at the expense of those concerns whose patriotism prompts them to respect the wishes of, and co- operate with, the federal government in this crisis.”
Businesses have one more chance to comply with Cluett’s order. If they don’t turn their outdoor lights off on Sunday, December 30, he will publish their names in the newspapers, with further consequences to follow.
Suicide by gas
Responding to an anonymous telephone tip, Third Precinct police find 27 year old Frederick McFeeters dying in his room in a boardinghouse at 514 River Street. Shortly before a doctor arrives, he expires from deliberately inhaling illuminating gas.
Married with one child, McFeeters rented the room to be close to his work at the Manning paper mill. The anonymous female caller tells police that she called the boarding house after receiving a letter from McFeeters this morning, but the staff got no answer when they knocked on his door. Investigators find an apparent suicide note addressed to Mrs. McFeeters, who lives on 18th Street in Lansingburgh.