Rotary's Power for World Peace

Messages from the President [July 1912] (cover of the July 1912 issue of The Rotarian)

Paul P. Harris

Spoke by Spoke the Rotary Wheel is Being Sheldonized.

We are given to understand that the above epigram is the product of the fertile brain of one R. R. Rogers.

Is the epigram true?

Yes, it's true ‑ not sadly true, gladly true - and I will tell you why.

"By unselfishly helping others to succeed, we make progress toward success."

Sheldon and Sheldon men have done much, very much for Rotary on this side of the water while Rotarianism and Sheldonism are doing a veritable lock step on the other side,

Mr. Sheldon has spoken a number of times before the London Club and the Manchester Club. He is at home again for a few days now, but we are at present perfecting arrangeinents for addresses to be delivered by him during the month of July before the Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow Clubs. Our progress across the Continent of Europe and to the Antipodes will, to all probability, be in his good company though that will be after my day.

If Rotary becomes Sheldonized, it will be because Sheldon gives generously of himself to Rotary. One can't give incessantly without getting something in return.

What is Rotarianism?

There are already more than Six Thousand answers to that question ‑ and there are many, many more to follow. How do I make that out? There are more than Six Thousand Rotarians in the world and many more to come. Each has his own individual conception of Rotarianism and he will continue to have it even if a brief concise definition of the word be generally accepted. You can't hold Rotarianism in words any longer than you can hold the spirit of brotherly love in a bushel basket.

Rotarianism is to you and to me what you and I would have it. Intellectual conceptions may be reduced to exact phraseology or pretty near it, but your grasp of Rotarianism is not a mental process alone ‑ it involves the necessity of heart action. If you have more of the milk of human kindness in your heart than I have in mine, then your conception of Rotarianism is higher than mine. Rotarianism runs through the whole gamut of human sentiment, and may be as exalted in the mind of one as it is debased in the mind of another. Rotarianism will endure. May your Rotarianism and mine pass muster.

Club Patronage.

I recently met a Rotarian whose heart was heavy laden. His club had for particular reasons which reflected not the slightest discredit upon my friend, given a considerable item of business to one of his competitors.

Until I had thought of the matter some considerable time, I was unable to sympathize with him. My uppermost thought was that membership in Rotary entails no obligation to patronize and therefore my friend ought not feel hurt. Then it occurred to me that the item in question was a piece of club business, and while technically it is true that the management of the club ought exercise the same judgment in making club purchases that they would in making their own, the fact nevertheless remains that in the case of club business, it being given to a competitor of a club member might hurt. It might hurt the member in the estimation of his fellow members and it might injure the reputation of the member in the estimation of outsiders. Possibly the competitor who obtained the business might make an unfair use of the circumstance in telling about it to the trade.

Is there any obligation upon the individual member of Rotary to patronize fellow members?

That question has been emphatically answered No! and our organization is such that we must avoid even suspicion of the existence of such obligation.

Is there obligation on the part of Rotary Clubs to patronize members when in need of supplies within their line?

In answer to this question, is it not proper to say that there is no obligation that is peculiar to Rotary Clubs? There is an unwritten law in clubs and organizations of all sorts that club patronage should be given to members who contribute to the support of the club. Rotary Clubs surely are no exception to the rule. Rotary encourages a spirit of helpfulness and therefore should be keenly responsive to the demands of this general rule.

Life's Lesson.

What are we here for?

To learn a lesson.

What lesson are we here to learn?

The only lesson, the lesson how to wean ourselves from ourselves. We have to learn it; there is no escape. If we fail to learn it of our own accord, it will be forced upon us. Sooner or later, we must inevitably be separated from self. The phenomena may be reserved for the last day here or it may come naturally, gradually, yes gratefully.

At eighteen, you were One Hundred per cent Ego, were you not? You were not merely self centered, you were self through and through. Thomas Carlyle said that at that age man attains the maximum of detestability.

Then came business; you made a surrender. Then you were married, and with your marriage came another capitulation with the forces of self. And if you and your helpmate were fortunate enough to have children, by the time that event took place, there really was very little left of that one hundred per cent of Ego and your separation from it had all come so gradually, so naturally and so gratefully that you scarcely realized what was going on within. Each experience was looked forward to, anticipated with an indescribable pleasure. Sacrifices? Yes, they might have been called that, but you would have fought desperately for the privilege of making them.

Yours was the natural way to learn the lesson. It was the way your mother learned it. Her life was the best exemplification of the doctrine of "Service not Self" you have ever known. When the final day came, there was little left for her to surrender. She was not more than one per cent Ego. The one percent flickered and went out but the ninety‑nine lived and lives and will continue to life.

What are we here for?

To learn a lesson.

What lesson?

Life's lesson.

Which one of Life's lessons?

Life's only real lesson; that in which we learn how to separate ourselves from ourselves.

Rotary in Paris.

Mr. Elmer R. Murphey, President James H. Rhodes & Company of Chicago, has scored another point for Rotary. He has established a club in gay Paris. From Paris he returned to London where he remained just long enough to address the London Club before sailing for home. We await, with interest, Elmer's story.

PAUL P. HARRIS,

(Attorney‑at‑Law, No. 127 North Dearborn St., Chicago.)