January 25: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “ALBANY — While controversy over Governor [Herbert] Lehman’s budget and tax program continued to rage unabated, the Legislature was told in a bi-partisan report today that business is leaving the state and immediate action has become necessary to discourage the exodus. The same report, dealing essentially with industrial and labor relations and signed by four Republicans and four Democrats, condemned communism in labor ranks and called on organized labor’s members to ‘weed out’ Communist labor leaders and Communist members and promulgate rules prohibiting Reds from becoming members of unions. The report was submitted by the Joint Legislative Committee on Industrial and Labor Relations under chairmanship of Assembly Majority Leader Irving M. Ives …The committee informed the Legislature that while numerous reasons had been advanced for the flight of industry from the state, the actual causes are not definitely known. The report appeared to assume added significance because of charges now current that the proposed higher state budget and the recommendation for higher taxes would become a factor in driving taxable wealth out of the state.”
***
ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “Here’s a note for real estate agents, building contractors, crib manufacturers, layette salesmen and diaper services. There’s been a change in trend. In November, for the third successive month, the birth rate fell below the corresponding month of the year before. Apparently, the postwar boom in babies is over. Apparently, the ‘resurgence in the reproductivity of the American people’ — as the Bureau of the Census puts it — is petering out. That doesn’t mean the economic forces released by the war-inspired marriages and births have spent themselves and are no longer affecting business. They are. The high demand for new homes, for furniture, and for baby clothes and equipment are directly traceable to the baby boom. Such purchases come under the head of the consumer capital formation. And they seem likely to persist a while longer. This marks a striking difference between this war and the last war. Though population continued to increase during the first world war, the rate of increase dropped — largely because immigration was cut off. This time immigration was a minor factor to begin with. Not so love. Population jumped.”
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’.