Transit Boss Rejects City's Big German Festival
A committee of German community leaders was rebuffed by the local streetcar manager, who refused to provide enough transit to handle the thousands of expected visitors.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Manager Dimmock of the Tacoma Railway & Power Company gave a stinging rebuff to a committee of representative Germans who called upon him to secure Spanaway Park for the four-day convention of the Saengerbund, to be held in Tacoma July 22-24. Dimmock’s refusal was in line with his policy of retarding the prosperity of Tacoma, claiming the company lacked the equipment to handle crowds larger than those he regularly served. 'We are satisfied with our usual business,' he declared. 'It is all we can take care of and I would rather not have the convention come here.' Otto B. Boeder, chairman of the finance committee, noted that the convention would bring 8,000 visitors to the city for up to ten days, providing a massive stimulus to local merchants. The business community is incensed, viewing Dimmock’s refusal to invest in infrastructure as a deliberate affront to both the German community and the city's economic future.
“'We are satisfied with our usual business. It is all we can take care of and I would rather not have the convention come here.'”
This story captures a classic turn-of-the-century friction between private utility monopolies and the city's growth ambitions. Just as 1904 merchants saw the streetcar as a bottleneck to the city's prosperity, modern Tacoma still grapples with how infrastructure—from transit to housing supply—limits or enables the city's ability to welcome growth.
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