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The Best Is Yet to Be
Rotary will ever need pioneering minds able to appraise fresh
ideas.
By
Paul P. Harris
IT WAS 1896 when Paul Harris hung up his shingle as a lawyer
in Chicago. Wisconsin‑born, he had grown up in Vermont, had
obtained his law degree at the University of Iowa - and
then, to study people firsthand, had filled the next five
years with work and world travel as a reporter, teacher,
fruit picker, actor, cowboy, marble salesman, and
cattle‑boat hand. What grew from a meeting to which, in his
ninth year in Chicago, he invited three other young
businessmen is now history known around the earth. As
Rotary's Founder and President Emeritus, Paul Harris has
visited all the continents, receiving the decorations of
many nations. He lives with his wee Scottish wife, Jean, at
"Comely Bank," their hillside home in Morgan Park, Chicago,
and when in town can be found at his trophy‑strewn desk at
35 East Wacker Drive.
IS
EVERYTHING all right in Rotary? If so, God pity us. We are
coming to the end of our day.
That unique philosopher Charles F. Kettering, head of the
research department of General Motors, puts it this way:
"When the automobile came into existence, we went on the
theory that everything was all right until it proved
itself all wrong. When an automobile broke down, we knew
it was wrong and set about to improve it."
The same backward policy obtained throughout the business world
at that time. Manufacturers boasted that their product had stood
the test of generations. What was good enough for grandfather
was good enough for grandson.
Then came the great change in the philosophy of the automobile
business. It switched clear around from the theory that
everything was all right to the theory that everything was all
wrong. Then they began to get somewhere in the automobile
business.
Is
everything all right in Rotary? No, thank God, everything is all
wrong.
There probably is no part or parcel of Rotary which can't stand
improvement. Quoting Kettering again: "A reasonable discontent
is what makes it possible to improve our product." The poet
Milton expressed the same sentiment when he coined the phrase "a
divine discontent."
By
the same token, may it not be said that a reasonable discontent
with what we have in Rotary is a wholesome state of mind, and
gives promise for improvement in the days to come?
I
like to think that the pioneering days of Rotary have only just
begun. What's 40 years in the life of a great movement? There
are just as many new things to be done as ever there were.
Kaleidoscopic changes are taking place, many of them without our
will. Even to hang to the fringe of this fast‑changing world is
about all most of us can do. Rotary simply must continue to
pioneer or be left in the rear of progress.
In
this cataclysmic period our Fourth Object stands out in bold
relief: "The advancement of international understanding,
goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and
professional men, united in the ideal of service."
Here's a chance for pioneering if ever there was one. Rotary may
be only a still small voice, but nevertheless it is a voice and
there are none too many.
Two world wars within 20 years! It staggers the imagination.
What hope is there in a world like this? Well, there's the still
small voice. When it becomes loud enough to be heard by those on
whose shoulders the greatest responsibility rests, we will have
peace. We will keep up the still small voice and others are sure
to join the cry.
This is a day of mountainous pessimism, but also a day of
mountainous hope. When has there ever been a time in the history
of man when so many folks are breathlessly listening to proposed
terms of peace? In the case of World War I, who was interested
in terms of peace? Where there was one in that day there are
hundreds today.
To
perpetuate the pioneering spirit, Rotary does not concern itself
with mechanical devices, but does definitely concern itself with
ideas. Ideas have at times lifted the gates of empires from
their hinges.
When the Dutchman Grotius early in the 17th Century made his
immortal plea for a world of law and order, he was cast into
prison. When Woodrow Wilson tried to preserve the integrity of
the Fourteen Points, upon which surrender had been based, he was
respectfully shown that in peace terms honor had no place. When
he returned to his own country, his ship of state was left high
and dry on the shores of oblivion. Such things had to be, but
they were not without their lesson. If we can't grow in virtue,
we can, at least, grow in wisdom.
To
those who contend that no advances have been made in
international thinking during the past 25 years, I would point
to the treatment of war prisoners in camps both of Allied
countries and of Germany. The "treat 'em rough" days have
passed, and every humanitarian provision adopted by Allied
countries is promptly reflected in the treatment of our own boys
in German camps. If we can't be humane, let us be smart at
least.
But there are other considerations. Our 7 million war prisoners
will go back to their respective countries with high respect for
our countries or else with hatred. Seven million released
prisoners will have no little voice in the questions of "war or
peace" which are bound to arise in the future.
We
are slowly but certainly emerging from "wild bull" days of
thinking to the age of reason.
"The psychological moment" is a phrase familiar to all men. It
is full of meaning. We may well use it now. This period of the
world's history is Rotary's psychological moment as far as our
Fourth Object is concerned.
There is a Committee in the Rotary International setup
designated as the Committee on Expansion of Functions of the
Secretariat. What the research department is to industry, this
Committee is to Rotary International. Its purpose is to keep the
frontiers ever open to new, vigorous ideas.
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