Bound Volumes, Hometown History
November 23, 2023
110 YEARS AGO
The national debts of the world now aggregate 42 billion dollars, having increased 20 percent in the last decade and doubled in the last 40 years. The interest and other annual charges amounted in 1912 to $1,732 million dollars, or an average of slightly more than four percent. The largest national debt is that of France at 6,284 million; Russia 4,553 million; United Kingdom 3,456 million; Italy 2,707 million; Spain 1,815 million; British India 1,475 million; Japan, 1,242 million; and the United States 1,025 million.
November 1913
90 YEARS AGO
Former New York State Governor Alfred E. Smith urged private citizens to unite in stamping out bootlegging after prohibition repeal by conforming strictly to state regulations for the purchase of liquor. “It behooves every patriotic citizen to secure his supplies after December 5 in a thoroughly legal manner. It is inherent in every good citizen to desire to be obedient to the law. The people now have the opportunity not only to be law-abiding, but the opportunity to help their country by increasing the taxation revenue so that the budget can be balanced. Realizing that the government needs more revenue and that he can do his part only by buying his supplies legally, no good citizen will patronize a bootlegger after repeal.”
November 1933
50 YEARS AGO
Specialists from Cornell University conducted an excellent seminar in Oneonta last week on natural disasters. The contention – natural disasters result in many different repercussions. For example, if Oneonta were flooded, we could expect fatalities, personal injuries, extensive property damage, power failures, disease epidemics and loss of water supply, to name a few outcomes. The question was asked: How would Oneonta cope? Those attending the seminar offered many suggestions including the stock answers of providing food and sleeping quarters for those evacuated from the deluge. Oddly, only one person mentioned the clergy near the end of the discussion. Ministers, priests and nuns could do an admirable job in such a situation. Is the clergy’s influence so weak in Oneonta that their suggested role in such a natural disaster comes as an afterthought?
November 1973
20 YEARS AGO
Burger King’s corporate policy now allows women to breast-feed their babies in its restaurants. The change comes just a day before a threatened “nurse-in” in a Salt Lake City Burger King where a nursing mother was told to take her baby to the restroom, or leave. The new policy says Burger King will welcome mothers who wish to breast feed their children. “We want to be a family-friendly place,” said Rob Doughty, vice-president for strategic communications.
November 2003
