100 years ago in The Saratogian
Friday, March 16, 1917
As the federal government struggles to avert a nationwide railroad strike, the Delaware & Hudson Railroad can’t make up its mind whether to impose a freight embargo on Saratoga Springs or not.
The D&H announced on March 14 that an embargo keeping most commercial freight off its tracks would go into effect the following evening. The Saratogian reports that the freight embargo was “partially lifted” this morning, only to be replaced by a new embargo this afternoon.
“Effective at once the D. & H. company will decline to accept freight of any character destined to points on or by the D. & H. lines,” according to a notice issued by local agent S. H. Moster, “Milk trains covering traffic to New York Central and Boston & Maine will be accepted.”
The nation’s railroad unions have threatened to go on strike this weekend unless employers implement the Adamson Law granting them an eight-hour day. The law was supposed to take effect on January 1, 1917, but has been delayed by a legal challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court’s decision is expected later this month; the unions have threatened to strike should the Adamson Law be declared unconstitutional.
In Washington, President Woodrow Wilson has called a meeting of railroads and unions for tomorrow evening in New York City. A delegation from the National Council of Defense, including the Secretary of Labor and the president of the American Federation of Labor, will take part in the meeting.
“There is reason to believe that the government, in view of the international situation, is determined to take any action, however drastic, to prevent a tie-up of the great transportation systems of the country,” according to a front-page wire service story.
The President has called a special session of Congress to meet next month, with a strong possibility that he will request a declaration of war against Germany. Union leaders reportedly hope to force a resolution of the eight-hour question before a war makes a railroad strike look unpatriotic.
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE?
John D. Hazard, a “wellknown local wholesale fruit dealer,” fears that his Armenian relatives in the Ottoman Empire have been massacred, The Saratogian reports.
Hazard had urged his brother and sister, who were living in the city of Urffa, but his sister’s poor health made such a move impracticable.
It’s now more than a year since Hazard last received a letter from his brother. Reports have reached New York that Urffa’s Christian population was massacred. While there remains a “slight possibility” that Hazard’s siblings are alive, “because of the long silence he believes this improbable.”