THIS DAY IN 1918 IN THERECORD

Saturday, March 9, 1918. Mayor Cornelius F. Burns blasts the Republicans on the Troy common council for their “partisan and petty” refusal to approve the 1918 tax budget, while The Record reports that the GOP alderman literally will pay a price for their obstruction. For the second week in a row, Republicans last Thursday denied the tax budget the two-thirds vote necessary for approval. The city can’t levy or collect taxes until the budget is approved. The GOP has seven seats on the 17-person council. Monday is the deadline for council approval of the budget. If the aldermen go thirty days after submission of the budget without approving it, the mayor will apply for a writ of mandamus. Doing so will force the Republican aldermen to “show cause why they should not favor the adoption of the estimate.” If they can’t show cause, they’ll be compelled to approve it. “The costs of this proceeding must be borne by the individual members of the council,” our reporter explains. Regardless of party affiliation, each alderman will have to pay $20 toward court expenses. “I’d be willing to pay the $20,” an unnamed “prominent” Democrat tells our reporter, “in order to make these obstructionists go down in their pockets. It might teach them something regarding the law of procedure.” Some Republicans are re- portedly unhappy with party leaders whom they blame for forcing the issue. After a caucus last night, “Minority members said they believed they ‘ had been used to promote the plans of some one else,’ and that if there was any cost for legal proceedings they intended to have the person in question contribute as much as possible.”

The mayor describes Republicans’ attitude as “that of senseless obstructionists playing a type of politics that was condemned by the people in the last election, and certainly will not merit the approbation of citizens at this time.”

R.P.I. Patriotism

Before tonight’s basketball game with the University of Detroit, between 300 and 400 RPI students march to the Troy post office to buy government thrift stamps in support of the U.S. war effort.

“The line extended far out the building and down the street,” the Sunday Budget reports, “and for some time the activity in the government building was confined to selling stamps more helpful in winning the war than postage stamps are.”

The students buy $125 worth of stamps at 25 cents apiece, equivalent in purchasing power to over $2,200 in 2018 money. After their patriotic showing, they march to the RPI gym to see the Cherry and White lose a squeaker to Detroit, 23-20.

- Kevin Gilbert