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The Soviet Table
One of the grandest traditions of The City
Club were the luncheon tables. Each day men would gather for
lunch and discuss a variety of issues. There were several
tables including the Schoolmasters' Table, the Sanhedrin Table
and the Anvil Revue table. "But the table that has achieved
the greatest fame, or notoriety, has been the Soviet Table.
This table is first mentioned in City Club
records in January, 1922, but like other ancient institutions
its inception is shrouded in mystery. After the first world
war a coterie of those who loved to talk, had strong opinions,
and did not consider it heresy to question the utterances
or deeds of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge began to
gather around a table in the west corner of the dining room.
Among the leading members of the group were Peter Witt, Jack
Raper, Ed Doty, the twins Dr. W.C. and Dr. W. H. Tuckerman,
Don Mills, Saul S. Danaceau, Ned Downer, Ed Byers and Don
Knowlton. The revolution in Russia was usually a topic of
conversation, if only to shock the hundred-percenters; so
one day when Jim McLaughlin, a florist, sent a centerpiece
of red roses, the ready-witted Pat Hayes (secretary of the
Club) placed them on the west table and remarked, "At
last you have your true colors--the Soviet Table." Jack
Raper once admitted that "none of us knew the exact meaning
but thought it must be something wicked and, like a lot of
little boys, we adopted the name." When the City Club
moved to Short Vincent this convivial group acquired a baronial-sized
round table on which they painted the Soviet emblem and the
names of their comrades. Years later during the McCarthy period
someone suggested that the name Soviet Table was a source
of embarrassment to the Club. Ed Byers, one of the original
comrades, dismissed the idea tersely: "It began as a
joke, let it stay--now it's even more of a joke!"
The Soviet Table, which even boasts a few
"right-wing deviants," has been the center of discussion
of political, economic and social issues of the day. For years
the acknowledged leader of these discussions was Peter Witt,
who would arrive every day at noon and hold forth for two
hours. He was joined by his friends Jack Raper, Ed Doty, and
Ed Byers, although the others were handicapped by the fact
that Witt never ate lunch, but used his spoon to emphasize
his points. Witt was an iron molder by trade and became a
single-tax advocate by avocation. In 1925 he initiated his
famous "town meetings," for which he hired a hall
and charged people admission for the privilege of hearing
him "skin the skunks." Although he attacked those
who violated the public trust with bitter invective, beneath
his "sour and irascible exterior" lay qualities
of integrity, generosity and courage that attracted many people
who became his lifelong friends."
The Soviet Table maintained a prominent
presence in The City Club dining room until our renovation
in 1999. The table can now be viewed on the west wall of The
Pogue Room. While changes in society have eliminated the daily
luncheon tables, The City Club still offers monthly Democratic
and Republican discussion tables.
Reprinted from, Freedom's Forum: The
City Club 1912-1962, by Thomas F. Campbell
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