THIS DAY IN 1918 IN THERECORD

Thursday, June 6, 1918. As more local soldiers move into harm’s way in Europe, people in the Record reading are desperate for any hint that the world war will end soon. It doesn’t take much for hopeful rumors to spread, but it’s up to our paper to shoot them down. “Telephones in the editorial offices of the Troy Record rang continuously throughout the evening, with the same query often on three phones at one time,” one reporter writes, “Phone calls were received from places as far away as Bennington, Vt.” Callers are asking for confirmation of rumors that Kaiser Wilhelm II, the ruler of Germany, was dead, and that 150,000 of his soldiers, commanded by the Kaiser’s son, had been taken prisoner by American or Allied troops. “The rumors apparently took life almost simultaneously, for they were heard by a Record reporter in Schenectady, Albany and Troy inside of two hours,” the reporter notes, “From where the rumors originated [is not] known, but they apparently came over tickers [i.e. telegraph wires] and as is usual in these cases were entirely without foundation.” As real news spreads through the area that local troops from the 105th U.S. Infantry regiment, formerly the Troy-based Second New York, have arrived in Europe, “There was general expression of genuine disappointment when members of The Record staff answered that there was no foundation in either of the rumors. The disappointment was without restraint in many cases.” At least one person didn’t buy the story about the Crown Prince in the first place, since American propaganda has portrayed him as a coward. That caller says the rumor about the prince getting captured with his troops “was too improbable for serious consideration, for it is quite unlikely that he will ever get near enough the front for that.” Troy Evening Line Scores a Victory The Troy Evening Line, which operates the steamboats Clermont and Oneonta, recently restored regular river service between Troy and New York City for the first time since the Hudson River Navigation company pulled out of the Collar City. The Record calls today’s decision in a New York courtroom as a victory for the Evening Line over Hudson River Navigation magnate Charles W. Morse. Justice Martin T. Manton denies an application by John R. Penrose to “intervene in the action” by which the Evening Line took possession of the two ships from the Catskill & New York Steamboat Co. Penrose is widely perceived as a henchman of Morse. His defeat in court “may be the first step toward ridding the river of the financial octopus,” our reporter writes from New York.