Las Vegas age. [volume] (Las Vegas, Nev.) 1905-1947, 1927-02-19
BIRTHDAY Of ROTARY
CELEBRATED BY CLUB
Outstanding Features of Life
and Growth of Rotary
Given at Meeting

L
tary club Thursday noon was full
of interest.
President Frosty announced the
coming program as follows:
February 24-Charlie Ronnow
Ernie Cragin' and Bill Pike will
cooperate in showing the Film
Secrets" at the Majestic. The
members will leave the luncheon
at 1:1O and repair to the Males
tic for the show. Each member
is requested to invite a guest.
March s. Fred Pennington and
Tighe Tompkins.
March 10-Walter Houck and
Johnnie Waters.
March 17-Leo A. McNamee
will put on a st. Patrick's Day
program.
March 24-Ed. Clark
March 31-Walter Bracken.
Frank Gussewelle was program
chairman for the meeting Thurs
day. As part of his entertain
mant he introduced Larry Bates
and his Banjo Trio, who played
number of snappy selections
which were received with ap-
plause.
The program was in celebra-
ton of the 22d anniversary of
the birth of Rotary, the first
meeting having been held Feb
ruary %, 1905 Frank briefly re-
ferred to the occasion and then
called on one member to review
the achievements of Rotary in
eadh successive year.
The following is summary of
the principal points touched on
by the speakers:
1905
am the year which saw the
birth of Rotary. On February
30, 1905, there gathered in the
office of Gustavus Loehr, a min
ing man, in the Unity Building
Chicago, U. S. 4, four men
They were Paul z Harris, al
attorney, Sylvester Schiele, Goa.
dealer, and Hiram E. Shorey, q
, merchant tailor, and Loehr. AL
were small-town men who had
gone to Chicago to go into bust
ness.
They met this evening to adopt
an idea that Harris had been
nursing for years, viz, that men
in business could be and should
be personal friends.
So, friendship and fellowship
was the basis upon which the
first Rotary club was founded.
Schiele was elected president.
At one of the early meetings
several names were suggested for
the new organization. Among
them Paul Harris suggested "Ro-
tary'', prompted . by the original
plans of the club which provided
for rotation in places of meet
ing, chairmanship, and even in
membarship-sinc the members
were elected for a period of one
year only. The name was adopt
ed at once. A fine of fifty cents
was imposed for failure to attend
meetings, and at first the fines
paid the clubs running expenses
1906
am the year when Rotary
learned to walk The infant that
was born February 13, 1905, was
growing Justify. Albert White,
manufacturer of cut glass was
elected president of the Rotary
club of Chicago for the second
year
The membership continued to
grow rapidly 1t was composed
largely of men who had come to
Chicago from small towns or
farms and had fought their way
up unaided. Rotary gave them
an opportunity to enjoy the init,
mate first name acquaintance re-
miniscent of boyhood days. To
such, Rotary was an oasis in the
desert of city life.
1907
There was still one Rotary
club in the world when 1907 be
gan and ended. but the idea of
Rotary extension was working in
the minds of Paul Harris and
other enthusiastic members. Paul
was elected president of the
Chicago club for 1907, having de
cided that the time had come for
him to pull as well as push. Dur
ing his term as president he told
one of his fellow members
Adolph jain, that he expected
to see Rotary clubs established
in every important city of the
United States.
Clean, wholesome fun, even
though at times it bordered on
horse-play, enlivened the meetings
which continued to be held in
the evening.
In 1907 the first effort was
made to extend the activities Of
Rotary outside its own fellowship
to include some definite work fol
the community good-the embryo
Of our present far-extended com
munity service activities.
! 1908
Club No. 2 was San Francisco
California, two thousand miles
west of the Mother Club in Chi
cago, o,organized by Manuel Munoz
an American of Spanish ancestry
with whom Paul Harris had be