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MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT EMERITUS, PAUL P. HARRIS.
"Fellow Rotarians, Friends: I hail you men of Rotary about to
engage in a great eventful gathering. (Applause.) I greet my
brother Rotarians of Great Britain (applause) of Canada
(applause), of Cuba (applause), and that great majority of
Rotarians, my fellow countrymen of the United States.
(Applause.) This is the hour for American Rotarians.
"When the emergency arrives, man arises to meet it. When country
calls, all men must respond. National assets must be assembled.
No national asset is comparable with that of right‑minded,
warm-blooded, patriotic men.
"Rotary is one of our Nation's great assets. When all men are
responding to our country's thrilling call, we cannot remain
silent.
"Rotary's supreme purpose is to serve; never service more
appropriate than on the present occasion. How and where we shall
serve remains for you to determine. May wisdom characterize your
deliberations!
"Individual effort when well directed can accomplish much, but
the greatest good must necessarily come from the combined
efforts of many men. Individual effort may be turned to
individual needs, but combined effort should be dedicated to the
service of mankind. The power of combined effort knows no
limitation. This superlative power no man may appropriate to his
own use. This is the world's sub‑conscious conclusion. We must
clearly understand the justice of it and measure up to its
requirements.
"Rotary, even in its most sanguine moments, has fallen short of
realizing its own strength. On no occasion has the cumulative
power of all Rotary ever been felt. We shall strike a mighty
blow some day and we thenceforth shall know ourselves.
(Applause.)
"Times of great political upheaval have marked the stages of
greatest progress. Seeds germinate in newly turned soil. In
these days of turmoil many a worthless habit will be forgotten,
many a worthy habit acquired.
"Civilization will attain such heights that it will make one
dizzy to look back upon the spot where we I are now standing in
the year of our Lord, 1917. With almost ridiculous ease and
dispatch, problems which have puzzled the sages of many
generations are being solved during these high tension days.
Pernicious influences which have for generations obstructed
progress will be obliterated as the chalk marks on the
blackboard are obliterated by the eraser in the hands of a
little child. Rotary must make haste even to keep up; but we
must do more,
we must lead.
(This
phrase may have influenced an RI president 89 years later)
"Events succeed events with lightning‑like rapidity. At this
writing, it would seem that many American boys in the fullness
of hope and vigor must lay down their lives. Can there be any
possible return commensurate with the awful sacrifice? That
depends upon you and me, and to what extent we avail ourselves
of the opportunities presented.
"Perhaps this world conflict may even be a blessing in disguise.
It will be worth something to us as a nation to be brought to a
serious account with ourselves, to be given to understand
ourselves better with respect to our relation to other nations
and to appreciate our responsibilities with respect to the
affairs of the world. We are a light‑hearted people, but other
nations shall be given to understand that we can be serious at
times. We shall come, as a result of the war, to a new and
higher appreciation of the young manhood which must bear the
brunt of the shock in this clash of nations.
"It sometimes seems that the forces of good are demoralized;
not less can be said of the forces of evil. However weary Right
may be, Wrong is much more so. These are mighty days, days of
incomparable opportunity ‑ of opportunity undreamed. Off with
the useless old, on the useful new! There will never be I a
better chance than now. Humanity must rise triumphant from this
vale of sorrow, ennobled by its suffering. (Applause.)
"Would we could have heard the blare of the trumpets as the
Royal Fusileer's band played 'The Star Spangled Banner' on
the wonderful morning when Pershing and his men first set foot
on British soil. The music must have stirred the little band of
Americans assembled there as the peals of the Liberty Bell
stirred their fathers who listened in awed silence more than a
century ago.
"Whom God hath joined together let no man cut asunder. Long live
our Allies and long remain the bond which binds us! May it hold
fast during the mighty strain of war and in happy time of peace
and may the alliance increase in membership till it includes all
men. The day the last shot is fired will be the time of all
times since the beginning of the world for the alliance of all
nations to enforce world peace.
"We have occasion again to be thankful that in this distressing
period of struggle we have as the executive head of this nation
a man possessed not only of fine scholarly attainments,
humanitarian instincts, and gentlemanly qualifications, but also
a man of world vision. . In its
new aspect as a world power, our nation will never have occasion
to regret its choice nor to be ashamed to be represented in
council of the ablest diplomatic representatives of all nations
by Woodrow Wilson, whom we are proud to consider the ideal of
American citizenship.
(Applause.)
"Britain is being remade. The United States of America is to be
remade. Economic conditions are to be reformed. This war will
give birth to a new and saner social consciousness. The American
of tomorrow is to be a broader visioned, more democratic,
healthier, happier, stronger, kindlier, more sympathetic, man.
(Applause.) Knowing more than hitherto of other people, he will
be more charitable toward other people.
"These are to be some of the by‑products of war and in the
achievement of these results, the most promising of the youth of
our land are approaching the volcano's crater in France. The
young manhood of other liberty loving nations have unflinchingly
faced the fiery ordeal and our boys will do likewise without the
bat of an eye.
"We are in the war. The Central Powers must have little
understood the temperament of the American people if they failed
to see that the consequence of their acts would be war. The
history of this nation has been an unceasing protest against
oppression. We are fighting today in the interest of the same
old, time honored cause ‑ Liberty. We are forging no curious
link in the chain which constitutes American history.
"The United States of America has neither land nor dollars to
gain. We seek only recognition of man's inalienable right to
live in peace with his fellow man. There must be an
international as well as a national conscience. (Applause.) It
will not be ours to engender hatred, wrest territorial
possession from or inflict vengeance upon our foe. Hatred is the
friend of none, a reactionary quantity, more likely to injure
him who cultivates it than to injure him who is the object of
it. Neither territorial misappropriation nor vengeance wrecking
has ever helped any nation in a fight for permanent peace.
"This does not mean that we shall be satisfied with anything
short of a decisive victory. (Applause.) The German war lords
have been so long defiant of the laws of civilization that
liberty will not be secure until Germany is brought to a full
understanding of the fact that the forces of justice are
prepared to deliver just that measure of force which is
necessary to preserve order on this terrestrial sphere. Criminal
insanity must be dealt with. (Applause.) No stark‑mad nation may
be permitted to disturb the peace of the world. Kultur is all
right in its place, but the world's history records no
successful attempt to impose either religion or philosophy upon
a free people by the use of the sword. (Applause.) Whatever of
Kultur we need in our national business we can obtain; we can
obtain it in Berlin whither our boys in the company of a few
millon of their friends are already bound.
"Rotary was born this side the sea. (Applause.) It could as
well, have been born in any other land of freedom. (Applause.)
It could not have had origin in despotism. (Applause.) This
great international quarrel has become America's quarrel. It has
become Rotary's quarrel. For Rotary has ever been the foe of
injustice. Rotary is the Twentieth Century leveller of castes,
destroyer of hypocrisy, the foe of artificiality, the lover of
things genuine and the ally of truth and righteousness.
(Prolonged applause.)
"We are , anxious to make, progress. We have much work to do,
work that is particularly and distinctly ours, but Rotary will
never permit itself to be so engrossed in its own affairs,
however worthy, as to be heedless of humanity's urgent need.
"It is my sincere hope that we may derive great inspiration from
the Atlanta convention and that it will not be found necessary
to omit any features of importance to the life of Rotary. But
let us remember that the needs of our country are more
imperative at this time than the needs of Rotary. (Applause.)
Perhaps we shall realize in the end the utmost of good to
ourselves as a result of present sacrifice.
"Did your board of directors act wisely in concluding to hold
the convention this year as usual? Who can doubt it? (Applause.)
If it there was to be just one convention to be held in the
present decade, I would be of those who with fervor would say:
'Let it be in the year 1917 for this is the year of Rotary's
great opportunity.
"This is our first war convention, may it also be our last."
(Continued applause.)
President Klumph:
I am going to offer a resolution myself, and I am going to
second it, and I am going to declare it carried. I appoint a
committee of one, who will be Chesley Perry, to send a telegram
to our President Emeritus, expressing the appreciation and love
of every delegate here and our regret that he is not with us.
(Applause.)
The message sent was:
Paul P. Harris
850 First Nat'l Bank Bldg., Chicago.
The entire body of delegates and visitors to the eighth annual
convention, thrilled by your eloquent and patriotic message and
newly consecrated Rotary by it, has directed me to express their
regret that you have not been able to be present in person and
the warm affection with which they had hoped to greet you."
Chesley R. Perry, International Secretary.
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