Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1917-03-07
ADDRESS BY CEDAR
RAPIDS BOOSTER

hAf4DO lDUUOJLn
ADDRESS OF JOE MCCORMICK
GIVEN AT COMMERCIAL CLUB
MEETING RECENTLY.
GIVES GRIsT OF SUGGESTIONS
Democrat Presents Mr.. McCOrmick's
Address in Its Entirety, For The
Benefit Of Its Readers.
The Democrat is pleased to give
space this week to the address CIV
en- by Mr.. Joe Mccormick of Cedar
Rapids, at a special meeting of the
Manchester Commercial Club re-
Gently. Following is the addres:
Mr.. Chairman and members Of the
Manchester Commercial club: ! feel
somewhat like the prodigal son who,
after wandering around for some
time in strange lands finally returned
home and found royal welcome
awaiting him. l have partaken of
and enjoyed my share Of the fatted
calf, but unlike the famous charac-
ter in Biblical history am not back
among the home folks in repent
ant mood. On the contrary assure
you 1 am mighty glad to be here with
you tonight and consider it an hon
or an privilege to be asked to. talk
to you.
When your good secretary DR.. Viii
son invited me to come to Manches-
| ter to make an address l warnel
him that I made no pretensions Of
being a Chauncey M. Depew or a
William Jennings Bryan so far as
oratoricial gifts or powers were con-
cerned. told DR.. Wilson that what
ever I had to say would be in the
nature of a heart-to-heart talk-that
would not attempt to hold you spell
bound or breathless in your chairs.
If however, can leave with you a
few thoughts or ideas that may prove
of benefit or help you in any way
towards q bigger and better Man
chester, l will feel that my humble
efforts have not been in vain. feel
somewhat like the old colored gen.
tlemen who was asked If he could
change ten dollar bill. "No boss,'
he replied, 81 can't but 'preciates
de compliment"
l am very much interested in the
well defined efforts which are being
made by this club to put Manches-
ter on the map. Similar attempts
have been made in the past, but they
were only spasmodic efforts at COM
munity boosting and eventually Pc
|tered out But honestly believe that
you are now on the right track The
turnout here tonight indicates that
| the right sort of interest is being
shown. OF course you'll run up
against SOME of tho erana- han9ars
! and knockers but don't let thera damp
EN- your optimism. You know they
say a real optimist is man who can
take all the lemons that are handed
to him during, the day and make a
lnice sweet glass Of lemonade out OF
them at night. .ls {
1t looks to me as though you now
have the sort of an organization that
will really do things and ! am glad
to know that you intend to put your
club on a business basis with secre-
tary who can devote all his time to
the clubs affairs. But gentlemen,
LET me sound this note Of warning
don't get the idea that running a
Commercial club is a one man job
even though you do have a man on
good salary to look after things.
That's one Of the reasons why Cedar
Rapids lost one Of the most efficient
Commercial club secretaries in the
country. The directory OF the club
and the various committees got into
the habit of letting sJohn do it,
with the result that John got tired
doing it all and moved to st. Joe
No., where the business men have
shown a willingness to give up some
time toward making the town better
and incidentally lettering their own
business while doing it.
When / first moved to Cedar Rap
| ids something over six years ago the
Commercial club had not yet struck
1.-The stride which later made 1t one
of the most talked of booster Organi-
cations in the country. 1t was hard
to get the business men enthused
enough over any project SO that they
would attend committee meetings OF
give up any time to help put some
thing over The young men of the
town were interested in the Ad club
which did everything but the prime
object 70 (which it was organized
the study of advertising. We had
about $50 live wires on the member.
ship list-some of you may remember
that a bunch of those same Admer
/ ~ yHor
4 a Commercial club was organized
five or six years ago and all of Ut
gave you a lot of advice then as tc
what you should and should not do
Well, the Ad club got to doing work
that rightfully belonged to the Com
mercial club. We had some success
in putting over various things and
consequently became quite chesty. II
got so they couldn't pull of a church
oyster supper unless the Ad club was
en- hand to see that no extra oysters
got in the soup. We had manu-
lecturers exhibit-got every one of the
! 1870 factories to make display o1
their product in the show windows
about town. Then before any of Vi
realized it ME pendulum began tt
swing the other way and we com
menced to desert the Ad club boosting
game to do the same thing for the
Commercial club. John Wunderlich
the good natured secretary, got 8
bunch of young fellows to help hin
out on membership meeting one
might, told us to as far as we liket
and almost on the spur Of the moment
we framed up buriesque meeting o
the board of directors and we had Sc
much fun out of it that we immediate