100 years ago in The Record
Monday, July 15, 1918
The Women’s Civic League calls on Troy mayor Cornelius F. Burns to remove Troy public market superintendent James W. Sheeran from office, The Record reports. Since the Troy public retail market opened on July 6, Civic League president Ellen A Freeman charges, Sheeran has “failed completely to protect the retail market or to give it fair play.” Freeman’s open letter is a litany of charges against the local Market Growers Association and unnamed commission merchants. She accuses them of trying to disrupt and sabotage the retail market, which is designed to let families buy direct from local farmers. The retail market meets on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. “During four retail market days hundreds of women have sought in vain for fair play on the public retail market,” Freeman writes, “and the conclusion is forced upon them by cumulative evidence that fair play for the natural growth of the retail market is, under present conditions, absolutely impossible.” Commission merchants have openly advised farmers not to bring produce to the market, and have blocked the stalls reserved for farmers with empty barrels, wagons and other junk. Sheeran is accused of selling farmers’ stalls, which are supposed to be free, to wholesalers. He also allegedly told women to shop at the public wholesale market instead. Patrons of the retail market “are representative of every section of the city and of every walk of life,” Freeman writes, “They find themselves powerless against a strongly intrenched monopoly of the market and the evident fixing of uniformly exorbitant retail prices throughout the city.
“We now send out the call for a patriotic rally to every man and woman in Troy to band together to break this powerful monopoly; to stop profiteering in the necessities of life – profiteering from the results of which no city home can escape.”
None of the market’s purposes can be accomplished, Freeman insists, while Sheeran remains in office.
War Fete Creditable to Community League
The Sunnyside Community League hosts a street carnival to benefit the Red Cross tonight, drawing approximately 4,000 people to Ninth Street, where “the dancing held on the new pavement between House and Ingalls avenues was enjoyed by an immense throng.”
Kirkpatrick’s Band provides the music while a number of local vocalists contribute songs. A. Stearns Beattie gives a patriotic four-minute speech, while an animal tent housing an elephant, bears and “various breeds of domestic birds” is one of the main attractions.
Organizers have “no definite idea” of the amount raised, but estimate it at “several hundred dollars.” Regardless, the carnival “will be long remembered by those fortunate enough to be in attendance.”