Under date of November 22, 1904, Vice-Consul General George Hill, Halifax, Nova Scotia, reports as follows: The enormous increase in immigration into the Northwest Territories and the growing necessity for a transcontinental railway to the Pacific coast forced the last Parliament to vote a subsidy of 75 per cent of the cost of construction to the Grand Trunk Pacific to build a transcontinental line across Canada to the Pacific Ocean which would help develop western Canada and allow its products to reach the sea through Canadian ports.

50 Years Ago, 1955

Daring, well-dressed holdup men manhandled New Auburn businessman Jacob J. Shapiro and escaped from his clothing store with $60 in cash. Lewiston police, only a couple of hours after the daylight robbery, picked up two men at a Lewiston hotel and turned them over to Auburn authorities.

The men who entered the store, apparently hoping to get their hands on the substantial amount of money that came over the counter at the store Saturday night, jumped the 86-year-old Shapiro as he unlocked his store. They shoved him into the establishment, pushed him around, and attempted to lock him into a small, back restroom. Shapiro, anxious to escape harm, turned over to them the $60 he had in a box in the rear office. The robbers overlooked $40, which was in the cash register, a place they did not look.

25 Years Ago, 1980

Many young adults in the Lewiston-Auburn area are concerned about one proposal made in President Carter’s State of the Union Address Wednesday night – revitalization of registration for the draft. The majority of those interviewed by The Journal felt the world was “on the brink of another war” and that thought worried them.

Registering for a possible draft, however, was another issue. “It’s really depressing. It wasn’t so long ago when I was in college, and we had to fight so long to get rid of the draft,” stated Francine Deutsch, 31, psychology professor at Bates College.

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