100 years ago in The Saratogian
Friday, Dec. 6, 1918. “Between midnight last night and sunrise this morning, the first real snow of the winter arrived in this vicinity,” The Saratogian reports.
Approximately six inches of snow are on the ground at daybreak, covering a veneer of packed-down snow left over from December 1. “Following the storm the weather remained cold and it seemed to be that winter had arrived,” a reporter writes.
“Although automobiles were about as usual today, some of them, especially those without chains were making hard work of the going. Cars which chanced to get in too near the curbs had difficulty in gaining sufficient traction to get back to the hard going in the center of the street and the revolving wheels threw up small geysers of snow.”
One car is damaged by skidding into the curb at the corner of Phila and Circular, but no one is hurt in the mishap.
Mill Strike at Corinth Lasts But Thirty Minutes
On a snowy morning in Corinth workers walk off their jobs at the International Paper Mill, but a telegram from the head of their union sends them back to work half an hour later.
Workers also launch strikes in Glens Falls, Watertown and Turners Falls MA, amid last minute negotiations between management and the International Paper Makers’ Union. The union wants the reinstatement of a 10% bonus that went into effect last spring but was discontinued during the summer.
Union president J. T. Carey didn’t actually want workers to walk out, expecting the War Labor Board to arbitrate the dispute, but his 11:30 p.m. telegram didn’t reach local secretary Fred Hasenfuss until just past 7 a.m. Carey later confirms by phone that the Corinth men should remain on the job at least until next Tuesday. His orders reach Glens Falls later still; the men there don’t go back to work until 3 p.m.
Just before press time, the War Labor Board appoints former federal judge Harry Covington as an umpire for the arbitration process.
Will Teach Women to Operate Tractor
The Bureau of Production of the New York State Food Commission will hold a tractor school for women and disabled veterans in Saratoga Springs next month, The Saratogian reports.
Students will be refunded a $1 admission free at the end of the course. According to bureau director Calvin J. Huson, the state needs more manpower to use a surplus of tractors purchased for wartime food production.
“A number of women operated farm tractors successfully during the past season,” Huson says, “and there is no reason why the number of women operated farm tractors cannot be increased.”