1924-1933 from boom to gloom: the Detroit Board of Commerce is active in the air, at sea and on the ground.The Detroit Board of Commerce's third decade is a study in sharp contrasts, opening in an era of seemingly endless prosperity and boundless optimism and ending in the gloom-and-doom depths of the Great Depression. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From the mid-1920s to the stock market crash of 1929, the Board was busy on an astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. number of fronts, not the least of which was an aggressive campaign to make Detroit the nation's aviation capital under the direction of William A. Mara, for many years the managing editor of the Detroiter magazine and later a top executive with Bendix Aviation The Bendix Aviation Corporation, a manufacturer of aircraft parts, was started by inventor Vincent Bendix in 1929 as a continuation of his auto parts company. It was renamed to the Bendix Corporation in 1960, then acquired by the Allied Corporation (later Allied Signal) in 1983, (see page 41). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On the ground, the Board secured overnight freight services to 32 cities and towns in Southeast Michigan Southeast Michigan, also called Southeastern Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan that is home to a majority of the state's businesses and industries, and is home to slightly over half the state's population. , helped develop Detroit's first traffic lights and mounted an aggressive traffic safety campaign to crack down on the "motor morons" plaguing Detroit's increasingly clogged streets. On the water, it continued its work on behalf of the St. Lawrence Seaway Noun 1. St. Lawrence Seaway - a seaway involving the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes that was developed jointly by Canada and the United States; oceangoing ships can travel as far west as Lake Superior Saint Lawrence Seaway (still three decades away from reality) and advocated for a permanent port authority for Detroit. In 1924 the Board started a movement to get the communities of the Detroit Region to cooperate in planning their future development by joining to form a Regional Planning regional planning: see city planning. Commission. Although it took two decades to get the enabling legislation Noun 1. enabling legislation - legislation that gives appropriate officials the authority to implement or enforce the law legislation, statute law - law enacted by a legislative body enacted by the Michigan Legislature The Michigan Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is organized as a bicameral institution consisting of the Senate, the upper house, and the House of Representatives, the lower house. , it was an important first step in advancing the principle of regional cooperation in Southeast Michigan. On the economic front, the Board backed the "American Plan American plan n. Abbr. AP A system of hotel management in which a guest pays a fixed daily rate for room and meals. Noun 1. " in response to the growing labor movement. Favored by employers, the "American Plan" encouraged open shop arrangements rather than compulsory union membership. The board also helped scuttle a proposed state income tax and saved iron and steel shippers millions of dollars by successfully fighting for non-discriminatory rates before the Interstate Commerce Commission Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), former independent agency of the U.S. government, established in 1887; it was charged with regulating the economics and services of specified carriers engaged in transportation between states. . The Board put its own house in order, too. Although its headquarters at 320 W. Lafayette Blvd. was a magnificent showplace, it was also a financial drain on the Board's treasury, and many felt the Board was competing with its own members by running a (money-losing) cafeteria. After a thorough study of the situation, the Board sold the building in 1925 to Detroit Free Press The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep". Some still refer to it locally as "The Friendly" -- a slogan from an ad campaign in the '70s. Publisher Edward D. Stair, who substantially enlarged the structure. When the renovation was complete, the Board moved back into the building as a tenant and remained there until 1965. The stock market crash of 1929 shook the business community to its foundation, but the Board rose to the occasion. With the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, the Detroit Board of Commerce lent cautious support to early New Deal initiatives. As the crisis mounted and the city of Detroit teetered on the brink of collapse, the Board and other business leaders stepped in with an economic rescue plan that ultimately averted the disaster of municipal bankruptcy in the nation's fourth-largest city. In 1933, the 30-year-old Detroit Board of Commerce applied for a renewal of its charter. "We go into our next 30 years with entirely new rules for business, with readjusted philosophy and with old principles knocked into a cocked hat," the Detroiter noted. Child star Jackie Coogan was a guest of the Board when he came to Detroit in 1924 to raise money for the MillionDollar Milk Ship for children in the Near East. Many years later, Coogan portrayed "Uncle Fester
Uncle Fester is a member of the fictional Addams Family. He was played by Jackie Coogan (famous as Charlie Chaplin's sidekick in The Kid " on TV's "The Addams Family Addams Family weird family, presented in grotesque domesticity. [TV: Terrace, I, 29] See : Eccentricity ." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A 1930 Detroiter article proudly noted that Television Sales Co. Inc. in Detroit was the "only organization in the world manufacturing and marketing a complete line of receiving sets for television broadcasts." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Visitors from China The Board of Commerce hosted this delegation from the Republic of China in 1924. The group visited Detroit to observe industrial and commercial activities. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A New Look The Board of moved into temporary quarters in the new Detroit Free Press building The Detroit Free Press Building is a building designed by architect Albert Kahn and constructed in downtown Detroit, Michigan in 1924 and completed a year later. The high-rise building has two basement floors, and 14 floors above the ground, for a total of 16 floors. in 1925 while substantial renovations were made to its headquarters across the street. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When the modifications were complete, the Board moved to the top two floors of its old building. The rest of the building, which now included a movie theater, was leased. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To keep its members off the "sucker list A sucker list is a list of persons who have previously been successfully solicited for something. The major areas of "sucker lists" are solicitation of donations and fraud. ," the Board of issued these signs to bona fide [Latin, In good faith.] Honest; genuine; actual; authentic; acting without the intention of defrauding. A bona fide purchaser is one who purchases property for a valuable consideration that is inducement for entering into a contract and without suspicion of being solicitors. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Edsel B. Ford Trophy was the top prize in the Detroit Air Olympics, sponsored by the Detroit Board of Commerce in 1928. See page 41. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This notice in the Aug. 13, 1928, issue of the Detroiter expressed the Board's frustration with Wayne County's failure to pick a site for an airport. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Silver Anniversary issue of the Detroiter highlighted 25 years of service by the Detroit Board of Commerce. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Board took a dim view of strikes during the depth of the Depression, as this Detroiter cover clearly attests. The Detroiter's first, brief mention of the stock market crash appeared on Nov. 11, 1929, in the "Getting Around" column where author Helen Giller refers to "the recent stock-flop." Two weeks later, the Detroiter reprinted this optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op cartoon from the Chicago Tribune Chicago Tribune Daily newspaper published in Chicago. The Tribune is one of the leading U.S. newspapers and long has been the dominant voice of the Midwest. Founded in 1847, it was bought in 1855 by six partners, including Joseph Medill (1823–99), who made the paper showing "Business as Usual" triumphing over reckless speculators. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Board gave its full support to President Franklin Roosevelt's emergency banking legislation. Banks across the country closed during a "Bank Holiday" in 1933 designed to stabilize the nation's bank system. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To Our Good Health Representatives from the Detroit Board of Commerce, the Detroit Department of Public Health and the Wayne County Wayne County is the name of sixteen counties in the United States of America, some named for the American Revolutionary War general Anthony Wayne:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This membership promotion in the June 20, 1932, issue of the Detroiter highlighted the Board's various business and civic advocacy programs. Dues were still $35 - unchanged from 1903. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Anchors Aweigh a·weigh adj. Nautical Hanging clear of the bottom. Used of an anchor. aweigh Adjective Naut (of an anchor) no longer hooked into the bottom Adj. 1. The deepening Depression didn't sink the annual cruise. In 1931, Board members sailed to Toronto aboard the Noronic. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 1933 the Board re-incorporated under the laws of the State of Michigan. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ads like these in the Feb. 15, 1932, issue of the Detroiter dramatized the growing levels of white-collar unemployment during the Depression. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a resolution to the president, the Board accused "labor agitators" of using the collective-bargaining provision of the National Industrial Recovery Act "to further their own selfish ends." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Paris Chamber of Commerce The Paris Chamber of Commerce (Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris or CCIP) is a Chamber of Commerce of the Paris region. It defends the interests of 310,000 corporations of the Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne départements that create 20% awarded this medal to the Board for its work on behalf of commercial aviation. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mr. Secretary Longtime Board member Roy D. Chapin, chairman of the board of the Hudson Motor Car Co., was named Secretary of Commerce by President Herbert Hoover in 1932. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Detroit: U.S. Aviation Capital (Briefly) The Detroit Board of Commerce was an early and enthusiastic advocate of the fledgling aviation industry thanks to the untiring efforts of William A. Mara, secretary of the Board's Aeronautics Committee and editor of the Detroiter magazine during the 1920s. In 1922 Mara met Edward A. "Eddie" Stinson Jr., the aviation pioneer who the year before had set what was then the world's flight record at 26 hours, 19 minutes and 35 seconds. Hoping to see Detroit become the nation's aviation capital, Mara frequently featured Stinson and his aviation activities in the Detroiter. The Board was also a frequent user of Stinson's air taxi air taxi n. A small aircraft that makes short local flights to areas not serviced by regular airlines. services while conducting business around the state and beyond. Stinson's Junkers F-13 aircraft was then the only one available in this area capable of transporting large groups of people. In 1925 Mara and his boss, Harvey Campbell, developed a plan to promote Detroit and aviation via an airplane tour to cover 13 cities and 1,770 miles in seven days. The 17 entrants in the First Commercial Airplane Reliability Tour took off from Ford Airport in Dearborn (site of today's Ford test track) on Sept. 28, and the event generated national headlines. Prominent spectators included Detroit Mayor James W. Smith James W. Smith (b.c. 1905) was an American Thoroughbred horse trainer. He was the son of Tom Smith, trainer of Seabiscuit. James Smith trained for automotive industrialist Charles T. Fisher and won the 1940 Arlington Classic with Fisher's colt, Sirocco. , Edsel B. Ford and Sen. James Couzens. Shortly after the tour Stinson showed Campbell and Mara an idea for a new type of plane. With Campbell's approval, Mara set out to raise $25,000 for a prototype. This effort led to the formation of the Stinson Airplane Syndicate, with Stinson as president and Mara as secretary. In May 1926 it became the Stinson Aircraft Corp., with production operations in Northville. The prototype--named the "Stinson-Detroiter" by Mara--was ready for a public demonstration on Feb. 21, 1926, when short rides were given at Packard Field on Detroit's east side. The "Stinson-Detroiter," with a top speed of 125 mph, generated great interest among aviation pioneers, including Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, America's ace of aces during World War I and later head of Easter Airlines, who lived in Detroit for a short time in the 1920s. Mara also was instrumental in the formation of Northwest Airways (forerunner of today's Northwest Airlines), incorporated on Sept. 1, 1926. Harold Emmons, former president of the Detroit Board of Commerce (1922-1924) was one of its four operating officers. Northwest took delivery of a fleet of Stinsons on Nov. 1 that year. Despite the efforts of the Detroit Board of Commerce and many others, Detroit was not destined des·tine tr.v. des·tined, des·tin·ing, des·tines 1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic. 2. to become the nation's aviation capital. Tragically, Eddie Stinson was killed in an airplane crash in Chicago on Jan. 25, 1932. On the day of his funeral his adopted city, Detroit, paid him homage fit for a head of state. Sources: "Images of Aviation: Stinson Aircraft Company The Stinson Aircraft Company was an aircraft manufacturing company in the United States between the 1920s and the 1950s. The Company The Stinson Aircraft Company was founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1920 by aviator Edward “Eddie” Stinson. ," By John A. Bluth (Arcadia Publishing Arcadia Publishing is an American publisher of local history. It was founded in Dover, New Hampshire in 1993 by United Kingdom-based Tempus Publishing, but became independent in 2004. ) and Detroit Regional Chamber archives. Time line: 1924-1933 1924: Leopold and Loeb "thrill killing" 1925: Scopes "Monkey Trial" 1926: Byrd flies over North Pole 1927: Lindbergh lands in Paris 1928: Hoover elected 31st president 1929: Stock market crash 1930: Detroit-Windsor tunnel built 1931: Thomas Edison dies 1932: FDR elected 32nd president 1933: Prohibition repealed |
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