October 7: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1911, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The differences among Brooklyn Italians over plans for the Columbus Day celebration have been patched up, and there will be only one parade instead of two. Borough President [Alfred E.] Steers invited delegates of the ‘warring’ factions to his office and former Assistant District Attorney Francis L. Corrao and his South Brooklyn societies and former Municipal Court Judge J. Palmieri and the Italian organizations in Williamsburg have agreed to agree. The arrangements for October 12 as announced by Mr. Steers are as follows: The Williamsburg and East New York Italians will gather at Eastern Parkway and Pitkin avenue and march along Eastern Parkway to the Soldiers and Sailors Arch at Prospect Park Plaza. At Bedford avenue and Eastern Parkway they will be met by the South Brooklyn Italians. ‘Tony’ Vachris, the police officer, will be the grand marshal. At the Plaza the parade will be reviewed by Borough President Steers. Fifty organizations and between 10,000 and 15,000 men are expected to march if the weather is good. Two dinners will be held in the evening — Mr. Corrao and his followers at Raub’s and Judge Palmieri and his friends at the Imperial. President Steers will speak at both dinners.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1917, Eagle columnist Frederick Boyd Stevenson said, “When a man sums up three years’ earnest, conscientious work in an hour’s talk, he naturally puts before you the best results of his efforts. This is especially true if that man be so constituted that he throws all his mental and physical energy in the task that he has set for himself. Mr. [George W.] Perkins is just that sort of a man. His business has been the food question. He has made it a big business, and, with the same zest and ability that he undertook other big propositions, he has gone clear through to the bottom of it. In this work he has rendered a service to the public the worth of which in the years to come cannot now be estimated. It has been an unselfish service and one for which the public owes him a deep debt of gratitude. When we were seated at his desk the other day, I asked him to outline the main features of his investigations into the causes of the high cost of food products and to present his conclusions as to the most practical remedy at hand. He said: ‘It seems to me extremely important that our people realize that our food problem is, after all, but a part of a much greater problem, namely, the problem of how the world is going to gather that in our commercial and social activities we are in reality but one community. Because of the war the demands for food made on us by Europe have been so large that our supply has been greatly reduced, and as a consequence prices have gone up. But we must not for a moment forget that even before the war broke out the price of food in this country was advancing and that it had already reached a point in our large centers of population where those with small fixed incomes were feeling the pinch keenly. It behooves us, therefore, while wrestling with the immediate problem that we should not lose sight for a moment of the causes that were at work before the war broke out, which at that time were so rapidly increasing prices.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.