100 years ago in The Saratogian
Saturday, Jan. 12, 1918
In a defeat for the state conservation commission, a judge today upholds a Saratoga spring water bottling contract that had been nullified by conservation commissioner George D. Pratt.
Today’s decision by Justice Henry V. Borst compels Pratt to honor the five-year lease granted in March 1916 by the state reservation commission to the founders of the Saratoga State Waters Corporation. Governor Charles S. Whitman transferred control of the Saratoga waters from the reservation commission to Pratt’s conservation department in April 1916. Pratt cancelled the lease the day before it was scheduled to take effect, declaring the bottling contract contrary to public interests.
“The law requires that the state must perform its contracts with the same fidelity as individuals or corporations,” Borst rules. While Pratt “is acting with the best of motives and in the belief that it is for the best interest of the state,” the contract between the reservation commission and the Waters Corporation remains legal and binding.
“There is not one law for the subject and another for the sovereign. When the sovereign elects, under the provisions of law, to make a contract with some of its subjects, its obligation to perform is the same as though it was a private individual. The state when it enters into a contract stands before the law on an equality with the citizens [and] may not prevent the execution of the contract for this is a violation of the law on their part.”
Narrow escape
“The terrible experience which befell a brother and sister Saturday on Antiona Mountain easily leads the roll of narrow escapes from death in this section for a long time,” The Saratogian reports.
Henry and Gretchen Van Goethen of Long island City recently purchased the Traver farm. Accompanied by Gretchen’s fiancé, Maurice Sambardien, they’re descending Antiona when Gretchen “started to investigate some dark seams in the rock, clinging to the side with her hands.
“In some manner she lost her hold and slipped toward the edge. Startled by her shriek, the girl’s brother and Mr. Sambardien sprang forward just in time to see her disappearing over the ledge.”
Henry manages to catch Gretchen’s skirt and hold her, bracing his foot against “a small projecting boulder on the very edge of the precipice.” Sambardien isn’t strong enough to pull the Van Goethens to safety. It takes him three hours to find help from John Van Dusen and his brother. After the Van Dusens pull Gretchen to safety, Henry faints from “severe shock. Gretchen has her arm put in a sling and is “very weak” but otherwise unhurt.