The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-04
PASSAIC CELEBRATES ITSELF,
HAS 10000 POPULATION AND SEC
RETARY SHAW To DINNER.
VIII Have 100 900 or Know the Reason
Why-SolId Citizens or r Great Town
- Celebrate Its Thirty.third Anniversary
Peter Reid Learns Who He ".

tltbI sNN " =
Peter Reid Learns Who He H.
PAssAIc, y, j., April 3.-This town put
on airs tonight because it was thirty-three
years old as a city and had as its special
guests such men as the Hon. Leslie NJ,
Sha W Secretary of the Treasury, and
Gov. Stokes, TO say nothing Of Mayors Of
half a dozen cities of the State and local
celebrities from various other places, 1t
celebrated its birthday with n dinner which
200 solid citizens attended.
The Board of Trade ave the dinner.
The Passaic Board Of Trade is no orna-
mental thing. 1t has acquired the hustling
, habit and it has begun to hustle for Passaic.
That was the reason it had Secretary Shaw
to dinner.
The dinner was given in the Passaic Club
in it's large gymnasium. The room was
! walled up with red bunting. The cross
beams we're hidden with trailing vineA ''nd
scores Of American flags we're groAle l
about shields on the walls which bore ne
insignia of the organization that did ti,n
celebrating. A lively orchestra dragged
out popular songs from the diners, and the
good things that go with a dinner and make
men merry were unstinted.
Passaic did not know how big a town it
really ia until V. L.. Mason. the president
of the Board Of Trade. told those present
all about il. 1t nov has a population OF
about 5000. st, Louis may have for Its
CRY "a million or bust" but Passaicis hot
after it. Its cry is 100, 900 in the next
ten years, or well know the reason why"
Mr.. Mason told his auditors that already 1t
ranked with Lancaster, Pa, Saginaw,
Mich, Dubuque and Terre Haute, of which
everybody hearsa good deal, and was bigger
than Schenectady, Topeka or Racine. He
said Passaic had been too modest, but here
after the world is going to hear more about it.
Mr.. Mason started things going by reading
a letter of regret from New Jerseys star
reformer, Senator Everett Colby. and
followed that up by another from President
Woodrow Wilson of Princeton University
telling the people of Passaic that they We're
lust about the finest flower of New Jersey
citizenship. and then he told what Con-
gresham II. c.. Adams of Wisconsin would
have said to those present had he been able
to attend.
He declared that Mr.. Adams, who was
down to speak on Insurgents" would
lave declared that certain influences had
probably gone too far in trying to knock
down and drag out certain institutions
and men in this country He declared
that if the United States Senate was rotten
and bad and utterly ~disreputable the men
in it were believed in by the people who
sent them there and that if they were
rotten the people must also be of the same
calibTe.
President Mason proposed a toast to the
President, and the patriotic impulses let
themselves loose with a mighty. roar OF
cheers. If the President had had his ear
TO the ground ne might have heard the
noise in Washington.
Mr.. Mason then started off the speaking.
When Passaic was incorporated in 1873
it had about 1000 inhabitants, and to prove
what it looked like they had a picture OF
the first house i'll the town, which was built
in IT'S, reproduced on the menu
George l.. Record of Jersey City did the
heavy speaking. His topic was Repre-
sentative Government" He struck out
on the spa am Of reform that il sweeping
over the country. He said the proper
scheme of craftsmanship was to work
out something worth while from it. He
declared that reform movements usual lily
petered out because Of lack of leadership.
One trouble, he said, was that the people
elected so-called good e to Office with
out any other attribute than mere goodness.
Then Mr.. Record stirred his auditors by
saying that what was wanted was not 50
much good men as good ideas. He said
good men would not save a nation, and the
thing to do to get any good out of spasmodic
reform was to take its good ideas and keep
hammering at them. until some realaeader
saw that they were Incorporated into law.
Secretary Shaw received tumultuous
applause when he got mp. He told what a
great State New Jersey was and then he
repeated in the main his speech recently
before the Bankers Association in Washing
ton on TRADE Expansion"
Gov. Stokes talked about Jersey at length
and the need Of bringing the corporatio ms
to paving more taxes.
One of the stars of the evening vas Peter
Reid, a pioneer manufacturer of the town.
The audience asked in chorus who he was.
and then told him all about himself amid
great cheering.