100 years ago in The Record
Wednesday, March 6, 1918
Troy mayor Cornelius F. Burns presides over a “war conference of the mayors and city officials of New York state” in Albany today, The Record reports. Burns, mayor since 1912, is in his second one-year term as president of the New York State Conference of Mayors. “As the cities contain nearly three-fourths of the population of this state, I believe no argument is needed to convince anyone that state and city officials must work in the closest harmony and with a thorough understanding, if the Empire State is to do all that it is expected to and should do to help win the titanic struggle in which we are engaged,” the mayor tells the conference. “We are at war with a mighty and an insidious foe, and whether we are on the firing line or at our desk in the city hall we must be alert and in the service wholeheartedly…. Every city official must be acquainted to the minutest detail to his duties and opportunities in war times so that there can be no excuse for acts of omission or commission, or any delays.” Some officials may have excuses, Burns concedes. New administrations have been elected in 25 cities since war was declared last April, and “These new officials are overwhelmed with official duties, all new to them. In a general way the war policies and plans of the state may not be very clear in their minds.”
Even veteran incumbents like Burns, who started his fourth term last January, may be overwhelmed by an avalanche of new wartime rules and regulations on top of mayors’ ordinary work. “I believe that everyone who has had any previous experience in municipal service will agree that in no previous year have we experienced so much difficulty in estimating the sources of revenue and municipal expenditures and in making as light as the conditions will permit the burden of direct taxation,” he says.
Housewives’ League
Members of the Troy Housewives’ League should adopt a uniform as a sign of their profession, a guest lecturer tells today’s gathering at the Y.M.C. A. building. Mrs. Emmett W. Gould models the so- called “Hoover uniform,” named after national food administrator Herbert Hoover. “This was a convenient and well made dress of gingham with detachable white collar and cuffs, white cap with insignia of the United States worn upon the cap and sleeve,” The Record reports. Gould’s instructs the housewives on how to bake “Victory Bread” in compliance with wartime limitations on civilian use of wheat. The luncheon includes barley with baked beans, barley cooked with cheese and “barley a la Indiana.”