The 'Buy Local' Crusade of 1904
Tacoma’s industrial boosters celebrate a year of lobbying, recruitment, and a rigid insistence on regional loyalty.
The Tacoma Manufacturers’ Association, whose motto is 'Tacoma Made Goods for Tacoma People,' completed the first year of its existence last night. After the annual meeting at the Chamber of Commerce, the association adjourned to the Donnelly cafe, where an eight-course banquet was participated in by nearly a hundred members and guests. Secretary Shaub presented a report noting the organization began with 26 members and grew to over 100. The association successfully recruited three new industries to Tacoma, including the Puget Sound Knitting Company and Pacific Stove Company. The keynote of the addresses was that Tacoma residents should support local institutions; as one speaker declared: 'Tacoma people should insist on Tacoma-made goods while they live, and be buried in Tacoma-made coffins when they die.'
“Tacoma people should insist on Tacoma-made goods while they live, and be buried in Tacoma-made coffins when they die.”
The rhetoric of the 1904 Manufacturers' Association—urging residents to support local industry as a moral obligation—is a direct ancestor to modern 'Shop Local' movements and the ongoing debate over regional economic sovereignty in an era of globalized supply chains.
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