100 years ago in The Record
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 1919
One Cohoes yarn mill reopens this morning, but a lockout against workers demanding a 48-hour work week continues in most Spindle City plants. The reopening of Fuld & Hatch on Saratoga Street puts 200 people back to work for the first time since February 3. With the exception of Harmony Mills, the city’s knit goods manufacturers shut down that day, allegedly due to lack of orders, during negotiations with the Cohoes Textile Council, a federation of textile-workers’ unions. The Council rejected a deal offered last weekend that would have granted workers the 48-hour week (over six days). The sticking point was management’s demand that the Carders’ Union agree to work through the normal noon lunch hour. Council leaders argued that the lunch-hour question should not be linked to the 48-hour question. The Carders will take up the proposal at a meeting later this week. Fuld & Hatch is operating on a limited schedule. According to general manager James W. Taylor, the plant will run only three days a week for day shifts only. As for the other manufacturers, a representative tells The Record, “We have no orders on our books at present. We will not offer any other propositions. The unions asked us to submit a counter proposal, which we did.”
Reported Killed But is Very Much Alive
While his name has not ap- peared on any official casualty lists from the federal war department, Private Chris Jensen of Lansingburgh had been unofficially reported killed in action. The Record reports today, however, that Jensen “is very much alive and well.” Sixteenth Ward alderman Edward J. Kiersted has received a letter from Jensen confirming that he is now part of the U.S. army of occupation inside Germany. “He wishes to be remembered to his many friends here, and expresses the opinion that he will not be home for some time yet,” our reporter writes.
Trojans Exposed Amendment Trick
U.S. Senator William M. Calder of New York credits Troy mayor Cornelius F. Burns with “showing me something that really had escaped my notice.”
As a result, the Senate is expected to vote down an amendment to the forthcoming river and harbor bill authorizing the creation of a U.S.- Canada joint commission to consider shipping freight from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic through Canada via the St. Lawrence River. Burns advocates an “All-American” water route including the barge canal and the Hudson River, with Troy as the hub.
“Mr. Burns and his friends showed me how an apparently harmless thing could be used against the best interests of the state,” Calder tells our Washington correspondent.