Service Above Self

Not Everything goes as Planned in 1912

by Rachael E. Martin, Club #25 Historian

Some of the plans for the 1912 Rotary Convention in Duluth never came to pass, or were reported incorrectly.
 

It was reported that Duluth Mayor John A. McCuen would give an address of welcome for the opening session on Tuesday, August 6, but due to the late arrival of trains, the speech was omitted.
 

It was also reported that the invocation at the August 7 banquet at the Spalding Hotel, where Gov. Adolph O. Eberhart spoke, was given by Rev. Stearns of Spokane, WA. Actually, he was mistakenly introduced at the banquet as coming from Spokane, and at the end of his prayer convulsed his hearers by adding to the invocation with only the slightest pause, "I'm from Tacoma."
 

Another report of a leisurely morning on August 8 after the previous night's banquet was mistaken. The men began their morning business meeting at the Commercial Club, while the ladies took a trolley car ride about the city. Special trolley cars ran to Lakeside, Woodland, and West Duluth. The men voted to continue meeting in the afternoon and not join the women on the afternoon boat trip up the St. Louis River. That evening they all got together for a boat trip around the horn. Anyone who knows where the horn is, please notify Rachael.
 

Mention of the Duluth Auditorium, where Paul Harris received his gold watch Thursday night, August 8, omitted the address of this now razed building. It was located at 300 East 1^st Street, which is now a parking lot for the Greysolon Plaza.
 

After the convention was concluded on Friday, August 9, 1912, a great many of the delegates left the city on afternoon trains. A few visiting Rotarians stayed in Duluth for a few days and took post-convention side trips to the Range and to different fishing points near the city.
 

The 1912 Duluth convention and the election of E. J. Filiatrault as a Director of the International Association of Rotary Clubs were the highlights of Filiatrault's 1912-1913 administration as President of Duluth Club #25, appropriately called the Dynamic Administration.