100 years ago in The Record
Wednesday, March 13, 1918
Bertha Durant, the common-law wife of convicted robber Joseph Campine, has her first day in court as an accused perjurer today, The Record reports. Campine was sentenced yesterday to twenty years at the Clinton penitentiary in Dannemora for his role in the drugging, beating and robbery of a Rensselaer County farmer in a prostitute’s Troy apartment. During his trial Campine was identified as a draft dodger because he had claimed exemption from military service as a married man. Identifying herself as Bertha Campine, Durant filed an affidavit last year identifying herself as Joseph Campine’s legal wife since December 1913, when the couple allegedly was married in Dayton OH. The federal government does not recognize common-law marriage or cohabitation as a basis for exemption. Perjury carries a penalty of up to ten years in prison. In police court today, Durant continues to identify herself as Bertha Campine while acknowledging that she is also known as Bertha Durant. She tells the court that “she did not know she was doing any harm in signing the affidavit.” Since police court magistrate James F. Byron can’t assign bail in a perjury case, Durant is sent to county judge Pierce H. Russell. “As she had not a bondsman, she was, after waiting for one quite a while, committed to jail to await further action,” our reporter notes. Af- ter our evening edition goes to press, Durant is freed on $2,000 bail.
Troy’s Supreme Moment Has Come
“Not once in a hundred years does a city face so stupendous an opportunity,” an editorial writer claims today while exhorting Trojans to subscribe to the Troy Development Corporation’s $200,000 capitalization campaign.
The Development Corporation will provide housing for an expected influx of thousands of people taking war jobs at the Watervliet Arsenal and other industries. Today’s editorial estimates that Troy’s population could increase by anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 people due to the war.
“Here is a manufacturing unit whose future is not dependent upon the shifting uncertainties of commercial life but upon the policies of a great nation,” our writer says of wartime industries. Despite this, the capitalization campaign has been a disappointment so far.
“Thus far the subscription list is self-sufficient proof that some of those best able to invest are ‘passing the buck’ to those whose ability is more circumscribed,” the writer complains, “Apparently they are willing to have the real burden of helping Troy fall on others.
“It would be a pitiable proof of unworthiness if a community which has been awaiting opportunity for twenty-five years should, when the supreme moment came, be found wanting.”
— Kevin Gilbert