Rotary's Power for World Peace

Then Came the Enemy [October 1928]

Message to the Pacific Rotary Conference at Tokyo

By Paul P. Harris

President Emeritus of Rotary International

To my friends in attendance at the Pacific Rotary Conference in Tokyo, greetings and best wishes.

In times of peace, prepare for war.

At a time when civilization had attained dizzy heights, when granaries were full, spindles working overtime, trees of the forests fully grown, churches overflowing, universities and colleges pouring their graduates into life:

THEN CAME THE ENEMY

The enemy is patient and farseeing; he bides his time. There's a time to wait and a time to strike. The time to strike has frequently been called the "zero hour," sometimes the "psychological moment."

He came, not noisily, boisterously, because to have done so would have been to defeat his cause. The enemy was clothed in the wisdom of years, possessed of the cunning of the fox. He was no mean enemy.

He crept stealthily into the homes of men of all walks of life, the homes of poets, ministers, law makers, historians and philosophers and also into the homes of peasants, seamen, bricklayers and draymen; he even managed to elude the guards and to slip through the doors of penitentiaries and alms houses. The enemy was in fact almost omnipresent; almost omnipotent; the only place he dared not go was into the graves of dead men.

The wisdom of waiting for the psychological hour is manifest when one remembers it takes time to fill granaries, erect factories, grow trees, build churches, colleges and universities. When the psychological hour arrives, the product of all of these institutions will be needed, sorely needed.

Intolerance may be vice or virtue, dependent upon what it is directed against. Intolerance of intolerance is a virtue. War may be either vice or virtue; the most virtuous war is the war against war.

Then came the enemy.

But even then, his presence was unknown. Neither storms nor plagues can be seen; one sees their effects only. Four devastating years were the result of the depredations of the armies, four never to be forgotten years from which there can be no recovery. Untold millions of lives have been the penalty; young Pasteurs, Edisons, Mozarts and Tennysons slumber today among the millions in the crimson poppy fields.

Science wages incessant Warfare against the deadly germs which prey upon humanity. Science must wage incessant warfare against the enemy. But who is the enemy? What is this vigilant, relentless all‑pervading force that paralyzes the better instincts of men; that plunges nations into strife, destroys homes, creates hell on earth? Though unseen, it is not unknown. Psychologists have termed it “Fear.”

Fear begins its work with childhood; it creates fantastic bugaboos; it fills the darkness with hob‑goblins, and in adult life it fills the unknown world with enemies; but fear is ignoble, it must therefore conceal its identity.

Fear puts on the mask of "Courage." He who shrieks his fears loudest becomes a national hero, a patriot. He sends other men of less‑conspicuous vocal attainment to war. He remains to keep the home fires burning.

The best antidote for international fear is international understanding; the best way to cultivate international understanding is through business and social intercourse. All nations are respectable and covet the goodwill of mankind. Racial superiority most frequently exists in the minds of men. The backward nations of today become the forward nations tomorrow, and the world realizes rich dividends from the change. National progress spells international progress; we must encourage, not discourage, the initiative of men. As a means thereto, let us make common cause of the extermination of the most deadly of all enemies, vigilant, conscienceless, remorseless, relentless ‑ Fear.

Friends of the Pacific Rotary Conference, God speed and bless your efforts.

Harris in the Rotarian