by Paul R. Spitzzeri
By the time the Roaring Twenties ensued and further massive expansion took place throughout greater Los Angeles, Rotary Club growth followed suit. As examples, a Long Beach club was formed in 1917, followed three years later by one in Pasadena and then in Pomona in 1921, though there certainly were others.
The Pomona Progress-Bulletin of 19 April 1921 marked the occasion of the formation of that city’s club by providing some history of Rotary to its readers, including the establishment of it by lawyer Paul Harris and three others in Chicago in February 1905. Under the subheading of “Marvelous Growth,” and this during a time that may have been a golden age for American fraternal orders and service clubs, it was noted that a San Francisco club soon followed and fifteen more were established within five years, while the first convention was held in the Windy City in 1910.
This national gathering was followed two years later by an international confab at Duluth, Minnesota, as a Winnipeg, Canada club and then one in London opened the doors to Rotary expanding outside the United States. In nearly a decade since the 1912 conference, the organization boomed, with north of 800 clubs established, including in China, Cuba, France, India, Panama and elsewhere. It was noted that there were no paid organizers, while procedures carefully screened for prospective clubs, including the requirement that “membership [was] restricted to one man from each business or profession.”
A major landmark in regional Rotary history was when the 13th annual convention of the International Association of Rotary Clubs was held in Los Angeles, a very popular convention city in the era, in early June 1922—a cartoon in the Los Angeles Times of the 5th is a striking illustration of “Miss L.A.” welcoming a “Rotary World” figure with a globe for a head. The contingent of Rotarians included some 10,000 members, with representatives from 26 nations, descending, most by train from elsewhere in the country, on the Angel City. Headquarters was at the Hotel Alexandria, long one of the luxurious hostelries in town, though the Ambassador and Biltmore facilities were newer, larger and more ornate.
A delegation, preceded by a band, marched from the Alexandria to City Hall, then located on Broadway between 2nd and 3rd streets, for a welcome by Mayor George Cryer. A dance was held at the Ambassador, a trip was made to Santa Catalina Island, a group met at the Sunset Inn at Santa Monica and excursions taken to San Diego, San Francisco and Yosemite, while returning Rotarians took the opportunity for longer visits to site elsewhere in America and Canada, while others went to Veracruz, México.
For the Christmas holidays in 1922, the San Pedro News-Pilot of 22 December reported that the harbor community’s club hosted 278 newsboys, who consumed “300 pounds of turkey, rivers of cranberry sauce, bushels of peas, olives and macaroni, bales of celery, wagon loads of bread, fifty cakes and many gallons of ice cream,” served by the club’s 46 members at the Elks Lodge. Even when the hungry young newspaper carriers devoured their meals, there was enough left over for the Rotarians and their spouses. During the repast, there were musical selections and recitations for entertainment.
Club president Hubert Cleveland informed the guests that many of the Rotarians were once newsboys and offered the hope that the next year would feed 500 young men. It was added that “the boys gave three cheers for the Rotary Club, three cheers for the Rotary ladies who prepared the food and three cheers for the Elk’s club [sic].”
Earlier in the year, a Rotary ad was published in the Pomona paper with the header of “The Solution of Present-Day Problems,” in which it was remarked that the international meeting, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, and with 20 countries represented, issued “a message of fervent good will to mankind.” This statement continued that,
United by a common desire to serve, and desiring the true peace and welfare of their fellow men of every race and creed, they proclaimed their faith and commended as a solution of every difficulty in government, commerce and industry among the peoples of the world. That faith is: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.” Again, on its Seventeenth Birthday Anniversary, International Rotary declares its belief that universal dedication to the Spirit of Mutual Service is the need of the world today and asks: Is there any problem of government, industry, or commerce which a practical application of the Golden Rule will fail to solve?
It was such idealism that drove more cynical minded figures like the iconoclastic journalist H.L. Mencken and the satirist novelist Sinclair Lewis to, in print, needle and prod Rotarians. The 12 April 1928 edition of the Whittier News ran a NEA wire service article from New Orleans that cited Arthur Sapp, president of Rotary International, which then had some 140,000 members, as taking umbrage at the pair, telling the press, “When those two poke fun at Rotary, we Rotarians can feel good that we are in good company,” though he added, “from the last I heard of these fellows, they were poking quite a lot of fun at Almighty God.”
Sapp became more serious when he remarked that “fellows like Mencken and Lewis have discovered that there is always an audience when a small boy throws a rock through a plate glass window. An audience is what they want more than they want anything else in the world. They’d starve, probably[,] without one.” The RI head then asserted that his organization “stands for a lot of things—all of them decent” with respect to such aims as improving vocational and community service,” concluding “it takes something more than a fool,” who can easily “wreck and tear down” in easy criticism, “to build. Rotary is trying to build.”
Regarding Rotary operations, the News-Pilot of 23 February 1923, the 18th anniversary of the founding, cited a speaker at that day’s club meeting who declared that it was “the only international organization in the world that has no such thing as a passive membership.” Moreover, it was commented that a member was summarily dismissed when missing four successive meetings and “to this rule is attributed one of the reasons for the remarkable efficiency of Rotary.” If a member was absent from the area in which his club existed, he was expected to attend a meeting wherever he was visiting.
The formation of the Chino Rotary Club, sponsored by Pomona’s Rotarians, was in December 1924 with its charter issued the following February just before the organization’s 20th anniversary. During the course of 1925, the club held meetings that focused on several major holidays. A Memorial Day address to the club by the Rev. Charles A. Kent of the Upland Methodist Episcopal Church commended the sacrifice of soldiers and added that “we are living in a time of international mingling, when there is a great tendency toward a time of effacing and wiping out many national and racial differences,” while he also supported “a permanent court of international justice.”
A meeting for Armistice Day, now Veterans’ Day, was held at the new American Legion club house, with the gathering conducted by the Rotarians. Charles Neely, a former Chicago judge and a professor of constitutional history and international law at Pomona College in Claremont, told the assemblage that “war had been abominable in our sight, but that no war [in American history] had been fought without honor.” He, too, supported a world court for international peace.
The Thanksgiving season gathering, which included spouses as honored guests, included remarks from Rev. W.C. Geyer of the Pomona Methodist Episcopal Church, whose “splendid Thanksgiving talk” including an admonition “against giving a short, laconic ‘thanks’ for a service rendered, holding that it is far more expressive and full of meaning if we say ‘I thank you.'” This, apparently, was more meaningful and indicative of true gratitude “rather than merely going through an accepted form of expression.”
An Ontario minister, Rev. John B. Toomay addressed the Rotarians and asserted that, while Christmas dated back some 2,000 years, “it is a subject which cannot be said to be worn out or even to have been developed to its full capacity.” He gave his stamp of approval to the idea of Santa Claus, observing “his ministrations to children is the giving of a definite expression to the Christmas spirit which cannot fail to be understood by all.” He concluded by advising everyone “to do some service for some other person on Christmas day” and noted “it was not always money or other material things [that] were needed, sometimes a word of sympathy or a friendly visit” would suffice.
Women, aside from rare honorary examples, were not permitted to be Rotarians until after a 1986 Supreme Court decision banning gender discrimination in clubs, but an early November meeting was “crashed” by spouses, who joined their husband members for lunch, but, as they entered the hall, sang a song with the lyrics:
What’s the use of being peevish?
What’s the use of being glum?
When every day is ladies’ day
And we come here on the run?
We have come to make you happy,
And not to give you pain.
And we hope you’ll take the hint right now
And have us come again.
The Monrovia News of 8 February 1929, as Rotary neared its 24th anniversary, ran a feature by Leila Mulligan titled “Rotarians Are Promoters Of High Standards.” In it, the author identified a half-dozen objectives of the organization, including “the ideal of service as the basis of all worthy enterprise;” “high ethical standards in business and professions;” creating relationships as a change to offer service; recognizing the value of “useful occupations” with each Rotarian “dignifying . . . his occupation as an opportunity to serve society;” and “the advancement of understanding, good will and international peace through a world fellowship of business and professional men united in the Rotary ideal of service.”
Mulligan also remarked that a major area of interest for Rotary was “in the boys of their respective communities,” so, in Chino, for example, there was a close tie with the Boys Republic institution, which began in San Fernando in 1907 and moved to what is now Chino Hills and has been at the same location since 1909, when the Los Angeles Rotary Club was established. It was added that “the betterment of rural-urban understanding, and the rehabilitation of crippled children are other popular activities among Rotarians.” For years, next to Boys Republic and now in Pomona, was Casa Colina, a facility helping children with disabilities, but, since the early 1950s, working with all ages.
Near the Homestead, in the town of Puente, with the Covina club as sponsors, a Rotary Club was founded in February 1930, as the organization readied for its 25th anniversary. Nearly 50 of the Covina cohort constituted a cavalcade that headed to its near neighbor to celebrate its charter night on the anniversary date of the 23rd. The gathering, held at the still-standing clubhouse of the La Puente Valley Woman’s Club, was deemed “one of the most successful in the history of Rotary activities in the San Gabriel valley.”
An ensemble of young women, styling themselves the “Sylvan Trio,” performed, while a past Covina Rotary Club president “contributed several fine vocal solos, accompanied by his wife.” The Woman’s Club members cooked “a most sumptuous meal” and the district governor handed the charter to hardware store owner L.T. Hammersley, the president of the new club. A welcome was also extended to guests by Charles O. Shoop, publisher of the Puente Journal newspaper. When the meeting concluded, the “Trojan Footwarmers” offered music for dancing and it was remarked that the band “lived up to their name.”
At Monday’s centennial celebration it was noted that the Chino Rotary Club recently merged with the Rancho del Chino club. The Puente club, renamed the Industry Hills Rotary Club, is approaching its 100th birthday and, hopefully, with have a celebration as lively and meaningful as that its Chino compatriots had earlier this week.