this day in 1918 in the Record

Tuesday, June 4, 1918. “SPEED MICROBE WAR HAS BEEN INSTITUTED,” The Record reports on a local news page today after Troy police have made eight arrests for speeding in the last ten days. “Individuals afflicted with speed mania will receive heroic treatment administered by Magistrate [James F.] Byron, who guarantees a sure cure, but the fee will be excessive,” our reporter writes. Because the Collar City enjoys miles of paved streets, “the temptation to put on speed is oftentimes irresistible to the average motorist.” As a result, “pedestrians have considerable difficulty in dodging automobiles traveling at the rate of 25 and 30 miles an hour and there have been any number of narrow escapes from death or serious injury.” Following public outcry, Byron is making an example of the speeders brought before him. Speeders have to pay a ten dollar fine, equivalent to more than $170 in 2018 money. The police magistrate “is not inclined to be lenient with this class and he purposes to co- operate with the police in making the city safe for pedestrians.” Byron promises to show no favoritism. “No exception will be made, the man who rides in an expensive limousine and the man who drives his own ‘ tin Lizzie’ [a Model T Ford] will receive the same treatment,” as will motor- cyclists like Howard Hill of Green Island who “are showing symptoms of having caught the disease.” Hill pays a $10 fine in police court this morning. Women Called To Take Places of Men New York State’s new “antiloafing” law requires civilian men of draft age to “seek some useful employment or take up an occupation which will aid this country in its war against kaiserism.” In many cases, men will be compelled to give up the jobs they currently hold in order to fulfill their wartime obligation. “This law has resulted in many Troy men losing considerable of their help which must be and in many cases has been replaced by women, who are rapidly adjusting themselves to their new sphere of activity and are making good,” The Record reports. Women are taking men’s places as retail clerks, chauffeurs, and especially in restaurants as waiters and short order cooks. “In most cases the change is for the better,” our reporter writes. “Instead of a stentorian bass voice calling for ‘one ham and make it two,’ our order is repeated in a musical soprano or rich contralto that is soothing to the nerves, and when it comes to quick service the woman has the man beaten in more ways than one, and she almost always wear a smile.”