PASSES THE ASSEMBLY
Great Western Gateway Bridge Bill Goes Through Assembly But is Stuck in the Senate

By vote of 76 to 42 “the Great Western Gateway” bill passed the Assembly last week after a hard fight by its introducer, Assemblyman McNab. It appropriates $150,000 for immediate use and pledges the state in the sum of $800,000 for a bridge to span the Mohawk River and barge canal from Schenectady to Scotia. The bridge, which is badly needed, continues the Great Western Turnpike across the river and canal at a vital point and is considered part of the plan for the improvements of the state highways. The present structures, which the proposed one would supplant, are antiquated, having seen more than a century of service, and are in a dilapidated condition. The projectors of the plan feel that the new structure is most urgent for the state’s benefit in many respects. More than 1,000 automobiles pass over these structures in a day. If the improvement is carried out the number would be increased largely to say nothing of the other travel which would be attracted. The bill now goes to the senate.

Guilderland Center

While Rufus Wormer was eating his breakfast last Friday morning, six wood choppers called on him to have their axes ground. “Rufe” went to the door with bare head, and not having his hat, jumped on his diamond grit grinder and ground the six axes in less than fifteen minutes. Then he returned and finished his breakfast. Who ever heard of such a thing while eating a meal? Of course, “Rufe” put on lightning speed and made the fire fly.

A Weighty Question

The question of the suffrage is a more involved one than that of simply dropping a ballot into the box. It has been the old conception of civilized society that women were devoting themselves to a function the most sacred, beautiful and noble — that of bearing and rearing children. Her education led up to that, and it was in this way that she put her imprint on the character of the race. From the beginning the man was the bread winner — the necessity of supporting those dependent on him sent him out into the world, and he naturally became the one who took part in the counsels of the commonwealth.

But the home, as it existed in the past, must go, some of the suffragist speakers urge. Well, if women serve on juries or in the militia, or assume the other manifold obligations of citizenship, the home will be broken up, for there will be no one to care for the children. It becomes a question whether the home shall make way for the institution, whether the chivalry, the recognition of the higher qualities of women, shall be thrown aside in favor of a larger community in which men and women shall compete in a scramble for positions one above the other.

— Albany Anti-Suffrage Society

Twelve-Cylinder Car Now a Possibility

With the eight-cylinder car barely introduced, automobile manufacturers are now talking of the 12-cylinder car, one maker having already thrown out the hint that “if the public demanded a 12-cylinder car,” his company was prepared to make it. There were 14 eight-cylinder cars exhibited at the automobile show held in Chicago in January, 1915, but so far as is known there is only one 12-cylinder model in existence, and that is a British racing car. Just whether the advantages to be derived from the use of 12-cylinder engines will compensate for the increased complexity of the mechanism is a thing that can be determined only by experience.

— From the May Popular Mechanics Magazine