Three Thousand Boosters Eat, Cheer, and Rebrand Tacoma

YOU'LL LIKE TACOMA. That is the new slogan selected by the Boosters last night from a field of three, the other two being 'See Tacoma Now' and 'Tacoma's Pride Is Justified.' The old slogan, 'Watch Tacoma Grow,' however, is not to be discarded but will continue to do good work for Tacoma.

Three thousand Tacoma Boosters responded to the call last night and made the big Lincoln banquet the greatest event in local history. Enthusiasm was contagious. And yet with all the noise and commotion, the 2,000 who sat at the tables found their places and got busy with little confusion. The menu was entirely sufficient and the musical and oratorical program was a triumph.

Many Women Look On. In addition to the 2,000 facing the long tables laden with the edibles there were 1,000 more, including hundreds of ladies, in the balcony. They were just as enthusiastic as those below.

Puget Sound University, with half a hundred lusty-lunged youngsters full of booster enthusiasm, started the excitement with their college yell after the crowd had stormed the south door and, with much squeezing, had entered the hall.

Tacoma's leading business houses were represented in groups: the lawyers, the doctors, the Y.M.C.A., the newspapers, the professions and trades and commercial bodies all were there. Second to none came the Puyallup Valley Boosters, with their table decorated with the products of their soil and the Sumner band on hand to add to the general boost.

Every particular club or business nearly had a call or a slogan which, at appropriate opportunity, was heralded through the hall, effectually preventing any lagging in the proceedings. Whenever it got a chance the orchestra was in evidence with catchy music that set the feet, the vocal organs or the whistles of the boosters going.

The program was carried out with decorum, relieved just enough to add to the interest and prevent stilted situations. Acting Governor M. E. Hay, ex-Governor Hanley of Indiana, Will H. Thompson of Seattle and Herbert Judson White of Tacoma were given tremendous greetings.

Judge Thompson, the principal speaker of the evening, in his address 'Lincoln,' set a new mark for ornate rhetorical effort on Puget Sound. 'I have heard the peerless Henry Watterson of Kentucky and the silver-tongued Robert G. Ingersoll in their great efforts on Lincoln and have listened to the greatest orators of the land, but never have I heard so fitting an eulogy as this by our old Indiana friend, Will H. Thompson,' said ex-Governor Hanley, as he was introduced following the waves of applause that shook the armory when Thompson had finished.

Colonel W. A. Snowden spoke on the early history of Washington and Tacoma. R. L. McCormick discussed incidents of Lincoln's life, and Frank B. Cole appeared as the wit of the evening with a discourse on 'Flat Wheels.' Toastmaster L. W. Pratt said Cole once ran for mayor but the people thought he was a joke and so Cole would speak to prove it.

He thought the T.R.P. had no monopoly on flat wheels. The fellow who puts a little two-story building on Pacific avenue, the citizens who try to bring the evangelist Bill Sunday to Tacoma, the fellow who does not know that the Ferry Museum is the greatest on the coast, the newspaper man who advocates unworthy officials and through the power of his position foists gold bricks on the people, the married men who have been benedicts for 20 years and have no children — all these, he said, were flat wheels thumping their noisy and discordant way through the community.

But the flattest and bumpiest of all flat wheels, he declared, was the fellow whose ears had been deafened by the flow of blood from his avaricious heart and who was trying to spike down the tide flats instead of allowing them to be spiked down by the railways.

Rev. Herbert Judson White spoke of Tacoma as a city of homes and he demanded that these beautiful homes be protected from the ravages of the saloon, and when he asked whether that great audience of 3,000 would ask the legislature to refuse to give the people a chance to say whether or not they desired the saloons, the crowd shook the hall with a mighty 'No,' and went on record for the local option bill.

Henry Hewitt told the young men to quit buying automobiles and buy land. 'Grab it,' said Hewitt.

John Mills of Puyallup made a decided hit boosting the 'Valley.' John Rea spoke for the Stadium, B. W. Coiner for the Mountain, Captain Griggs of the Armory, Adjutant General Hamilton of the National Guard, George S. Long for the A.-Y.-P. exposition and Bishop Keator of the Booster Spirit.

Frank B. Cole was armed with a big bell to ring down the orators at the expiration of their time limit, and Rev. Mr. White declared when the bell was rung on him that it was the first time he had ever known Bachelor Cole to be with a belle.

A dramatic incident of the evening was the appearance in the balcony of the lodge of Woodmen, when one of them mentioned to a friend to throw up an orange. Immediately the crowd caught the spirit of the thing and for two minutes apples and oranges rained on the Woodmen from all over the hall.

The decorations in the building were splendid and the banquet gave a good start to the big Booster movement which is expected to move Tacoma this year. A new slogan was selected for the exposition in 'You'll Like Tacoma,' admitted first by Frank F. Fentress, who gets the $50 prize. L. W. Pratt was elected president of the Boosters.