Admitting the Stagnation: The Commercial Club's Self-Critique
The local Commercial Club meets to dissect why their organization has stopped functioning, leading to a vow of manual labor on the roads.
At the regular Commercial club meeting Tuesday evening a lot of time was wasted in discussing ‘What’s the matter with the club.’ We say the time was wasted because there was no need of discussion nor occasion for argument. All members present and all members absent are unanimous in diagnosing the case: The club has accumulated cobwebs in its cog wheels. The piston is sticking, the babbit is worn in the boxings and the second cylinder is missing. In other words the members, as individuals and committeemen have been loafing on the job. We are going to start our gingering-up gymnastics Friday, November 20, by wearing a few blisters on our hands, at the end of a rake handle under the direction of the good roads committee.
“The club has accumulated cobwebs in its cog wheels. The piston is sticking, the babbit is worn in the boxings and the second cylinder is missing.”
Small-town boosterism often suffered from the same organizational burnout then as it does now. The 'good roads' movement was a major civic priority in early 20th-century Washington, reflecting the desperate need for infrastructure to connect emerging towns.
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