Monday, June 18, 1917

A total of 7,725 men and women between the ages of sixteen and fifty have registered with the state military census so far in Saratoga Springs, but The Saratogian reports that 549 people have one week more to register.

Last week, residents were able to register in their local polling places, but those district census booths closed last Saturday night. From now until the close of the census on June 25, the city court room will be open “daily from 7 to 9 p.m.” for stragglers.

The military census is meant to establish residents’ availability for military or other forms of service during the U.S. war against Germany. Registration is mandatory, and “the work is now up strictly to the delinquents, who, if they fail to register, make themselves liable to arrest and imprisonment.”

RED CROSS CAMPAIGN

Mechanicville gets a head start on this week’s nationwide fundraising campaign for the American Red Cross by raising $7,345 at a rally at the high school auditorium.

The rally is preceded by a “monster street parade” from North Main and River streets to the high school building. Local contractor and songwriter E. K. Thomas serves as grand marshal.

Col. James M. Andrews, commanding officer of the Second New York Infantry regiment, which includes Saratoga County’s Company L, addresses the meeting. “He said that the United States must step into the great war and they were going to do it,” The Saratogian reports, “he believed the three-word motto in vogue at West Point would be fulfilled, ‘Duty, Honor, Country.’”

Tonight’s donations bring Mechanicville in easy striking distance of its $8,500 goal for the week. The Red Cross hopes to raise $100,000,000 nationwide during the campaign.

COLOR LINE = PICKET LINE

Today’s front page reports that 2,000 General Electric machinists have gone on strike in Schenectady to protest the hiring of a black man to work a drill press.

“The men marched through the business section of the city, an American flag flying at the head of the procession,” a Schenectady correspondent writes, “The machinists claim that they ask only what the government, in its army regulations, recognizes: the separation of blacks and whites.”

GE general manager George E. Emmons refuses to back down, contending that “he sees no reason why the color line should be drawn.” The unidentified new hire is a Union College student, one of twenty recommended to GE by college authorities.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

The long-running Monday night serial “The Great Secret” reaches its conclusion at the Broadway Theater tonight, while the Palace presents “Dope,” billed as a “A Photoplay that entertains and instructs.”