100 years ago in The Record
Wednesday, Feb. 27, 1918
Mayor Cornelius F. Burns appears to have the upper hand in his latest battle with the New York Central railroad, but he may have started a new fight with the United Traction Company in the process.
The mayor goes to Albany today to speak at a state public service commission hearing against the Central’s plan to reduce belt-line rail service between Troy and Albany. Commission chairman C. B. Hill appears to agree with Burns that the Central failed to make a convincing case for the service cuts.
The Central’s position is that the belt-line service interferes with essential wartime freight shipments, but company attorney William Visscher ends up apologizing to the commission “for not having a more complete case.”
Burns reminds the commission that both the Central and the Delaware & Hudson were trying to reduce service before the U.S. declaration of war on Germany last April. “This is no new matter,” he says, “Do not be fooled by that. It is the same old trick of trying to get away from the belt line service.
The Central isn’t motivated by patriotism, the mayor says, while “Troy is just as patriotic as any other city in the country. It had one thousand of its sons in service before any draft was instituted and its previous history will bear out any other assertion that I might make as to its patriotism.” The railroads argue that cutting belt-line rail service would be no great hardship so long as United Traction runs streetcars between Troy and Albany. Burns scoffs at that idea, telling the commission that United Traction “is not a system that anyone could depend on for regular service.” Going further, the mayor claims that “it is unsafe for women to travel on the United Traction Company cars late at night.” That charge angers United Traction vice president H. B. Weatherwax, who “took this matter up with the mayor” after the hearing. Burns doesn’t back down from his claim. The Record reports that “there will be an investigation” of the mayor’s charge, but it’s unclear whether the investigation will be undertaken by the city or the streetcar company. Suicide By Hanging A Troy man is found hanging by his neck this morning in his room in an Eighth Street boarding house, our paper reports. Martin H. Simmons, a 52 year old former employee of Cluett-Peabody, is declared dead at the scene. Investigators believe that Simmons hung himself sometime last night, using a “small strap.” Simmons “had been despondent for some time and had not been working recently,” our reporter notes.