100 years ago in The Record
Saturday, Jan. 19, 1918
“The second day of the five-days embargo to-day passed off much the same as was the case on the initial day,” The Record reports, “The trolley cars were only half-filled, even at the rush hours. Manufacturing plants were idle and the usual smoke rings from tall chimneys were missing. “The city is passing through an experience so strange that hardly anybody attempts to analyze it just now; everybody is waiting to see just what the effect will be.” Many Trojans have sixday work weeks including at least half a day on Saturdays, but the city’s factories are closed by order of the federal fuel administration. Most factories east of the Mississippi will remain closed until Wednesday, January 23, so that the government can divert coal to trains delivering freight to Atlantic ports and ships bound for Europe. Following the five- day shutdown, most businesses will be required to close on nine consecutive Mondays, beginning January 28. In a move to restore civilian morale in the face of nationwide criticism of the orders, federal fuel administrator Henry Garfield announces today that theaters will be allowed to open on the Monday “holidays,” but must close on Tuesdays.
Not to reason why
In a Troy courtroom this morning, the city of Rochester tries to block the state public service commission from approving a fare hike for that city’s streetcar service provider, while Troy’s representative in the state assembly hopes to strip the commission of any jurisdiction over trolley fares. With Justice Wesley O. Howard presiding, the Rochester corporation counsel argues that the public service commission has no authority to abrogate his city’s contract with the New York State Railways Company, which mandates no more than a five- cent fare. Attorneys for the streetcar company argue that “jurisdiction has been conferred upon the public service commission to consider [fare hike] applications,” which is where Assemblyman John Shannon comes in. The Record’s Albany correspondent reports that Shannon will introduce legislation next week to “take from the statutes that section of the law under which the commission has ruled it has the right and power to pass on the applications of street railway companies for increased fares.” “Of course such a bill is hopeless,” our writer assumes, but Shannon tells him that “no matter what may be the merits or destiny of the bill, there is sufficient demand for it in his constituency to warrant action on his part.” Shannon’s proposal “seems to be impracticable and to bear a slight tinge of socialistic recourse,” but “What does Mr. Shannon care? The railroads and the commission are unpopular in Troy.”