The newspapers learned first, naturally, by the wire that President Taft had signed the statehood proclamation. They in turn alerted everyone else.
First to wail was a siren at the city water works, ordinarily saved for fire alarms. As the big siren, tied down, screeched an offbeat medley, laundry whistles joined in, then the locomotives at the SP yards. School bells pealed. Firecrackers popped.
Bartenders set 'em up at the Double Stamp, La Paloma and the Legal Tender. There were toasts at Congress Hall, 11 S. Meyer, an oasis where the Legislature met during the decade that Tucson was territorial capital.
Storekeepers saluted the occasion by raising American flags.
All three minor offenders brought before him that day were freed by Police Judge I.O. Cowan. "This is a day of peace and rejoicing," the magistrate said.
Over at the University of Arizona, faculty, students and townspeople gathered at 4 p.m. to hear speeches by Mayor Ira E. Huffman and others. Huffman, a doctor and a Democrat, was mayor from 1911 to 1915.
Two companies of the university battalion, in full dress uniform, marched onto the parade grounds, where the new 48-star flag was raised.
Source: Arizona Daily Star
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