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OTARIANS,
FRIENDS ‑ To All, GREETINGS: It is your happy privilege to be
participants in Rotary's great Loyalty Convention. You will
depart from this Convention Hall with a new spirit of loyalty
and patriotism. Let us remember that inspiration is a flame
which soon dies out unless fed with the faggots of service. The
success of this Convention will depend, not upon the words here
spoken; but upon the deeds hereafter to be done. Rotary imposes
no obligation of creed, and that is one of the chief reasons why
Rotarians are always so ready to respond in thoughtful, kindly
deeds.
Each
preceding Convention has been given a name appropriate to the
year. It is fitting to the urgent needs of the times that this
be known as Rotary's Loyalty Convention. In this, and in all
other lands over which the Star of Rotary has risen, there is a
persistent feeling of unrest. Deep and threatening problems urge
themselves upon the minds of men. Men must think themselves out
of the morass in which humanity, thru its selfishness, finds
itself. Civilization will survive the trials of the present and
future as it has survived the trials of the past; but all of the
ability, all of the ingenuity, all of the resourcefulness, all
of the unselfishness of all men must be summoned to
civilization's aid. The Loyalty Convention of the World's Rotary
Clubs affords an unequalled rallying ground for the adventure.
The darkest
hours of the day are those which precede dawn. Angry clouds,
clouds of disappointment and failure, hang low upon the horizon;
but they give way to the break of day.
Thank God for our struggles, because without them we
cannot gain strength. Aye, thank God for our failures,
for without them we cannot succeed. The lives of great
men and of great nations are measured by difficulties
overcome, not by luxuries indulged in. Men rise from
their Gethsemanes, nations from their Waterloos.
The
dominant characteristics of the time are its blighted hopes, its
yearnings, its disappointments, its failures, and hence its
promise of better things.
There are
no new principles involved. The seemingly new problems are, in
reality, old problems drest up to look like new and the remedies
to be applied are the old, old remedies, older than the ancient
hills. The real problem is how to apply the time‑honored rules.
Rotary,
charitable in spirit and tolerant of the views of others,
has found acquaintance a wonderful instrumentality. It is
located right where it ought to be, on the road to friendship.
Rotarians recognize the facts that it is as difficult to hate
him whom one really knows as it is to love a stranger; that
reprobation in the light of better understanding frequently
gives way to approbation. Acquaintance is a powerful agency in
the interests of peace, which is as true of the factory as of
the drawing room; as true in the aff airs of men as in the
affairs of nations. There never has been a strike not the result
of greed on the one side or the other. There never has been a
strike‑breaker to compare with service - service by the
employer, service by the employee. When Rotary adopted the
slogan "Service," it took on a big order, and it is bigger today
than it was when adopted. The boys at the front and the welfare
organizations have given new meaning to the word. It has grown,
in fact, to be a panacea for human ills.
The Service
way out of difficulties is the constructive way. Therefore,
Rotary has ever been constructive. Conditions get so bad at
times that destruction becomes necessary in order that
construction may begin. Destruction has become a science; but
construction still has first call upon the genius of men.
Rotary
affords an unexcelled opportunity to study and to experiment
with the means of accomplishing industrial harmony, and an
equally good opportunity to disseminate information gained.
This old
world has, of late, seemed mad at times, mad in the pursuit
of the almighty dollar and some of the soulless, worthless
things which money will buy. Small wonder indeed that contention
is the order of the day. Rotary must lead men back to a
realization of the good old wholesome truth that neither success
nor happiness can be measured in dollars; that the really
worth‑while things are beyond the pale of contention because a
merciful Father has made them free.
Rotary
is now recognized as a world asset, as a spiritual dynamo
making for friendliness among men and nations. Honor, abundant
honor to the Atlantic City Convention and measureless happiness
to you, my friends, if Rotary can once again bring home the fact
that the one way to international peace, the one way to
industrial peace is thru following the time‑honored rule: "All
things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye
even so unto them."
Sincerely
yours,
PAUL P.
HARRIS.
‑This
message from President Emeritus Paul P. Harris was read to the
Eleventh Annual Convention of the International Association of
Rotary Clubs at Atlantic City. N. J., U. S. A., by
Secretary‑General Chesley R. Perry, Tuesday, June
22, 1920.
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