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 […] I take great pleasure in handing the gavel to my fellow
member and President of the National Association of Rotary Clubs
of America, Mr. Paul P. Harris. (Applause.)
Toastmaster Harris.
Mr. Chairman, gentlemen of the Rotary Clubs of America: If I
were to talk for an hour or more I could not begin to express
the emotions I feel on this occasion.
This thing means to me doubtless very much more than any of you
can conceive. This is a project ‑ I do not mean to say my
elevation to this particular office is the project ‑ but this
matter of getting the Rotary Clubs together in one grand
convention, has been a project which has been dear to me for
many years past.
This has, indeed, been to me a bargain week. I don't know how
any person could be presented a greater gift than that of the
National Presidency of the Rotary Clubs of America. Everything
comes to him who waits, and hustles as he waits, as our friend,
the Chairman, has said.
It
is a most splendid thing to be a Rotarian. Within the last few
months to me has come the finest woman on earth. It seems
particularly agreeable to me that she should be followed by this
other splendid gift. I don't know that there is anything more on
this earth that human heart could desire. (Applause.)
We
have a long program, and we are going to get right down to
business. These gentlemen have come freighted from the Pacific
with their golden ideas. Gentlemen from the Pacific Coast,
gentlemen from the Atlantic and gentlemen from the Gulf of
Mexico, they have come hundreds of miles to be heard. I am,
indeed, sorry that it is going to be necessary for us to limit
their talks greatly. We have sixteen speakers on the program,
and it will not be difficult for you to compute the length of
time that it would take them to talk if they talked ten minutes
apiece. That was the outside allowance given. So, my friends
from the Coast, or from the south, kindly forgive me in advance,
if I find it necessary to ask you to stop talking.
The first speaker we have this evening is one who is extremely
well known to all Chicago Rotarians, and is extremely well known
to all Rotarians throughout the country and very well known to
the American people. It is singularly appropriate that Mr.
Sheldon should be asked to talk on the National Organization
work. Humanity is divided, in my estimation, into two classes:
there is the man who is a metropolitan, and the man who is a
cosmopolitan. The metropolitan has his locus at one particular
place, the cosmopolitan has no particular place, but he is good
here, there and any place. Mr. Sheldon is a national man and a
rational national man, and I think it will be extremely
interesting to hear from Mr. A. F. Sheldon. (Applause.)
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