100 years ago, 1914
Bales of cloth from the Pepperell Mfg. Co. of Biddeford are being received in large quantities by the Lewiston Bleachery for finishing, after which they will be shipped to Europe to be used for hospital purposes in connection with the war. The Biddeford Journal says that something over five hundred thousand yards of these wide goods made by the Pepperell Mfg. Co. have been ordered.

50 years ago, 1964
Sen. Margaret Chase Smith in a strongly-worded letter to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, today urged the Defense Department to take immediate steps to provide military contracts for the Worumbo Mill of Lisbon Falls in an attempt to help the mill from closing its doors. On the heels of her letter, Rep. Clifford G. McIntire, campaigning in Boothbay Harbor, sent a supporting telegram to McNamara and one to the chairman of the board of the J. P. Stevens Co., which owns Worumbo, urging that the plant complete its current military commitments at Lisbon Falls. In her letter to McNamara, Mrs. Smith said: “If you can support a policy that injures the textile mills of Maine for the benefit of foreign countries and foreign workers, then so surely you can take action to help the textile workers so hurt. “You can do it,” she said, “You can do it very directly. You can do it now. You can direct the award of contracts for woolen clothing and blankets to the Worumbo Mill that is closing in Maine because of foreign imports.”

25 years ago, 1989
A French-owned company slated to build a new trash-burning power plant in Auburn went down to the wire, but Friday delivered monetary guarantees demanded by local government officials if the project is to move forward. CGC Municipal Services Friday provided $750,000 demanded a day earlier by the Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp., a consortium made up of Auburn and surrounding towns that hopes to refurbish the Goldthwaite Road steam plant.

The material in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors made at that time may be edited.


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