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January witnessed the successful completion of the biggest and best job the Club had so far attempted. It was the invitation to the State Legislature to visit Purdue University and the Soldiers Home; its acceptance; and the following visit. Every member of the club worked, paid his ten dollars per capita, and saw the thing through. A salute of seventeen guns upon the arrival of the Legislature, via Inter Urban cars direct from the Capitol building at Indianapolis to the Purdue Campus. Opposition had stated that the Wabash River bridge was unsafe for these cars. Rotary did not want to lose a single legislator by allowing the cars to stop on the Lafayette side of the river so Purdue engineers tested and examined the bridge safe, and the cars crossed the river. There was a parade of the three thousand students with the band; President Stonie's welcome on the green by John Purdue's grave; lunch in Agricultural Hall; inspection of all the departments; automobile ride to the Soldiers Home in a very hard snow storm and return for dinner in the Chapter Houses of the Pan Hellenic Council. The result, a better realization of the members of the legislature of Purdue's value to the State; an increased future support for the University; and to Rotary a vision never before possessed of its ability to tackle new problems. It was at the afternoon session of the Annual District Conference on February the 22nd, 1921, at Evansville that John N. Dyer, a former first Vice President of Rotary International called attention to the fact that the General Assembly was giving consideration to a bill to provide state assistance in the erection of a memorial to James Whitcomb Riley. He then proposed that Indiana Rotarians support the movement to have the memorial take the form of a hospital for children. He was seconded by Frank H. Hatfield of Evansville and the proposal was unanimously carried, Seventeen members from the Lafayette Club attended this Conference and supported this resolution. Up to the time the Club had been meeting in the Blue Room of the Lahr Hotel, but with a membership now of seventy-five the meeting place was moved to the Rotary Room of the Lahr. Before the close of Edgar Goldsberry's administration the Club had a most interesting Ladies Night. Two hundred and sixteen sat down to dinner, with three hundred and ninety-five at the show,- Rotarian Kin Hubbard's "The Bean Blossom Rotary Club," the performers being members of the Indianapolis Rotary Club. This was the year of the Edinburgh Convention of Rotary International. The delegates came back from Europe with fine reports of a wonderful convention. For souvenirs the, men all had specially bound copies of John Richard Green's "History of the English People," and the ladies had scarfs of Nottingham lace. After the convention everybody went down to London, of course. There was a reception at Hampton Court and one at the Hotel Cecil. Lady Astor in giving a toast said that the toast used to be: "To the ladies, God bless 'em," but now that women had the vote, she felt that it ought to be: "To the gentlemen, God help 'em." A delegation of some twenty International officers from America journeyed from the Hotel Cecil to the Palace atop an ordinary bus, making the natives gasp, this being the first time such a thing had ever occurred. |
Rotary this year saw two hundred and sixteen new
clubs organized to make one thousand throughout the
world. A Ladies party, full of surprises, mystery
and fun was held in November, with forty visiting
Rotarians and Rotaryanns from
Crawfordsville.|
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