|
 The
National Rotarian
Issued from the Secretary’s office of the National Association
of Rotary Clubs of America
Vol. I. January, 1911. No. 1.
RATIONAL ROTARIANISM
 By
Paul P. Harris.
National President.
If
by interposition of Providence I some day were to find myself
standing on a platform in some great Coliseum looking into the
eyes of every living Rotarian, and were to he told that I could
have one word to say, without an instant's hesitation and at the
top of my voice, I would shout “Toleration !”
It
was in pursuit of it that the pilgrim fathers embarked in their
frail craft upon the stormy waters. It was from the chrysalis
toleration that lustrous winged liberty, awakened by the music
of the sweetest toned bell on earth, sprang and floated away
that July day in Philadelphia, while the world dreamed and
wondered.
“Whether or not it is dishonorable to join a club for business
purposes depends upon the club, its principles and what one
professes to join it for. There is no more culpability about
joining a business club for business purposes than there is
about joining a social club for social purposes, an athletic
club for athletic purposes, or a political club for the
acquisition of a pull.
If
this Rotary of ours is destined to be more than a mere passing
thing, it will be because you and I have learned the importance
of bearing with each other's infirmities, the value of
toleration.
Rotary is entirely without precedent in the history of clubdom.
We
have had no rules except such as have been gathered from the
creative imagination of the men who have been responsible for
our destinies. As mariners, long before the invention of the
compass, successfully navigated perilous and unknown seas by the
guidance of the stars, so they, the forefathers of Rotary,
observing the rules that have from time immemorial influenced
the lives of men, skillfully guided their craft in perilous,
unknown and trying circumstances. May we never, in time to come,
depart from the safe course of rational toleration and humane
consideration of the convictions of others.
If
I, as above said, were by Providence to be placed on a platform
in some great coliseum where I had the eye and the thought of
every Rotarian on earth, I would like to propound this question.
“What is the philosophy of Rotary as you understand it?”
In
my mind's eye I can see a multitude of hands go up and I can see
myself realizing the hopelessness of arriving at accurate
conclusions through process of haphazard individual expression
of opinion.
However, I might well ask another question.
“How many believe that Rotary philosophy is to give and to
influence business and to get business from fellow members and
persons influenced by them?” The result would probably be that
all, except a very few, would arise.
To
narrow the question down to an even finer point, I might ask:
“How many, if any, of those present think it either dishonorable
or unethical to join a club for business purposes?” That shot
would reach home. A few might arise amid numerous murmurs of
disapproval.
However, if such result were to be, I would think it but fair to
give the minority hearing. I would ask, “Mr. Ethical Standard”
to express his views. I can readily anticipate them. He would
just about say:
“This business‑getting feature of Rotary looks dangerous to me.
What will people think of us? I am a member of several clubs and
societies all of which rank high in our city and I know it to be
a fact that in one of them at least soliciting business is
strictly prohibited and in all it is tabooed. In my personal
estimation it constitutes the personification of bad form. Clubs
are meant for club purposes and not for business purposes. If a
man is to continue to grind away at business all day and all
night, why does he not remain at his desk or store? One of the
chief purposes of clubs is to take one away from business cares,
to afford one rest and recreation. I have lived for forty years
now and have never in all my life known or heard of a club whose
very constitution and by‑laws violate this fundamental
principle.”
Here a cynic might interpose, “Did the thought that your great
grandfather lived all of his life without ever having been on a
train of cars, ever enter your head? And if so, did you ever
happen to arrive at the conclusion that your grandfather's
inexperience constituted no valid argument against cars?”
But were it to be my good fortune to choose, I would certainly
ask to hear from “Mr. Vigorously Definite” on the subject. From
what I know of the man, I can tell you in advance many of the
points he would score. Some of his words might be:
“Whether or not it is dishonorable to join a club for business
purposes depends upon the club, its principles and what one
professes to join it for. There is no more culpability about
joining a business club for business purposes than there is
about joining a social club for social purposes, an athletic
club for athletic purposes, or a political club for the
acquisition of a pull.
“
If any one tells you that it is reprehensible to try to make a
dollar or two for the wife and babies from club associates in
straight forward business transactions tell that person that
some foreign substance has gotten into his carburetor.
Legitimate business transactions are profitable to both sides.
If it was necessary to skin a man every time one does business
with him, there might be reason in the view point, but I know my
goods, and I know that I am doing the other fellow just as great
a favor as I am doing myself, when I give him a chance to trade
with me. The trouble with the philosophy of Mr. Ethical Standard
is that he has gleaned the information that in certain
particular clubs of which he is a member, business soliciting is
either prohibited or tabooed, and the moment he gleaned that
information his lights went out.
“If they had stayed lit a second longer he could not have
escaped getting rationality back of his conclusions. He would
have come to a realization that straightforward business is
never what the lawyers would call manum per se, that is wrong of
itself. It may be what they would call malum prohibitum, that
is, wrong because prohibited or made wrong by some rule of
conduct which we are bound by law or by our oaths to respect.
“No true Rotarian ever permits his tail feathers to droop just
because some outsider makes the remark that business is one of
the key notes of Rotary. Then is when he gets cocky. “Business?
Yes , of course. Why not? I’m proud of it, aren’t you? If your
business is good enough to talk in your shop, and even your home
is not too sacred for its consideration, on what theory do you
exclude it from your club?
For us to be ashamed of business would he unpardonable in view
of what business has done for each of us. With nearly equal
reason and propriety a man might he ashamed of his own father or
mother. Business is the mainspring of civilization. Cut business
out and the great hands of time will whirr backwards to eons B.
C.”
I
never like to have a good subject exhausted at one brief hearing
and so I would give an instant's thought to the possible
proximity of the rock “Intolerance” and modify my question. I
would ask: “Does Rotary stand for anything beyond or besides
giving business and influencing business to fellow members and
getting business from fellow members and persons influenced by
them?”
Business Gets Another Boost.
By
this time we would see “Mr. Cash Discount” on his feet and
desirous of telling us just what be thinks about this matter.
I
have known Mr. Cash Discount for some years. He has good
qualities. Among other agreeable habits of his is that of paying
his bills when they are due, or before if there is a cash
discount. He will never be worth more than a million because he
doesn't think in larger sums, but, barring the possible chance
of a cyclone's digging up the safety deposit vault in which he
plants, and distributing its contents into the lake or the sea
he will always have his knuckle of ham, and will never become a
charge on the county. He would say:
“I
have been a member of our Rotary club ever since it was first
organized in our city. During that time I have given business
direct to seventy‑five different members and have influenced
business to thirty‑two members making a total of more than one
hundred members whom I have helped. The total volume of the
business given and the business influenced by me to club members
has been $2,148.I6 and the total business which I have received
has been $1,97I.65 of which all but $83,95 has been paid. I
think that I have done my share and that there is a balance in
my favor in the ledger. I would like it if you would all come
down to my shop. I can show you each item and the man who got
it, or whom I got it from.
“I
joined Rotary Club because the man who induced me to join told
me that it was a club made up of men in different lines of
business who came together for business purposes, and it
appeared to me to be a very rational plan. It would be like
having two or three hundred solicitors, live wires all the time
looking out for business for me. Pretty nearly every one on
earth of whom I have had either goods or labor to buy is in some
kind of a combination. I have been, in one form or another,
paying daily tribute to combinations for twenty years. On the
one hand I buy my oil from the oil trust, matches from the match
trust, beef from the beef trust, coffee from the coffee trust,
sugar from the sugar trust, and on the other hand, all of my
employees are unionized and I get if there. I feel like a grain
of wheat between upper and nether millstones.
When this Rotary scheme was presented to me I was ready for it
but it seemed almost too good to believe. It was just like it
was handed down of the Christmas tree. Business is what I am
here for. It is my idea that a club can be either a business
club or it can be a society club or something else. I don’t know
how it's going to be two or three different kinds of clubs and
succeed in any one of its purpose. There are plenty other clubs
that are organized for social and public purposes but there is
no other Rotary. I am a hard working man. I attend to business
twelve hours every day and even when I go to Rotary club I
figure that I am attending to business except that it is in a
different way. Otherwise I would not feel that I could afford
the time.
“You may talk all you please about the duties of citizenship and
all that, but its business that gets the money and its the money
that we are all after. I know of one of these reform fellows who
was always shouting about doing something for the city. I wish
he would try to do something for me. He owes me $1.75. If I
spent all my time reforming and attending to other people's
business I would probably be owing someone else $1.75 and if I
mixed in bridge, whist and those other falderals I don't know
what would become of me. No, Rotary, as I understand it, is a
business proposition, and as such it is doing all right, or as
near to it as can be expected, and, in my estimation, it had
better leave well enough alone.” Thus finishing Mr. Cash
Discount would seat himself.
A
Broader View of Rotary.
But there is one more man to be beard from. He will represent
the class of Rotarians who have not as yet been heard from in
the debate. For want of a better name I shall call him “Mr.
Altruistic Equilibrium.” Coming, as he does, last, he will have
had opportunity to review in his own mind all the points raised
by his opponents but he is always last because he is a good
listener.
He
will start out:
“Whether or not business is the only thing to be thought of in
Rotary depends largely upon one's view point. If one has been in
the habit of thinking of Rotary in the light of the question,
“What is it worth in dollars and cents?” then it is to such
person a business club pure and simple and nothing else. Viewed
even entirely in its aspect as a business instrumentality it is
a good thing, an asset of value. It is also true that a man of
the caliber of my friend Cash Discount who takes a purely
business view of Rotary may be an undeniable advantage to the
club in his way. We all have our living to make and his helping
hand is very welcome.
“The real subject now under debate is the question: “Is Mr.
Discount's way the only way?” Is there to be no place in Rotary
for the man who believes that Rotary ought be something more
than a mere business exchange? Is there no place in Rotary for
him who recognizes the fact that he, as an American citizen of
this day and age, has been the recipient of a vast heritage, the
result of efforts of generations who have passed beyond, and who
thinks it his duty to do something toward balancing his account
by doing something for the public present and for generations
that are yet to come.
“I
have been thinking of the Rotary scheme as a compensatory
arrangement. It makes it possible for one to do something for
his community and to pay his personal and business expenses, and
probably make something besides, while he is doing it. Most
commercial organizations call for considerable sacrifice both of
money and of time on the part of their members for which there
is almost no possible prospect of return. In many instances, the
members can ill afford it. Now, I am not unaware of the fact
that it does not require great courage “to cast bread upon the
waters when the tide is flowing back one’s way” and that there
is no great credit in charity which calls for no sacrifice but,
courage or no courage and credit or no credit, Rotary gives us a
chance to do something to square our accounts with the world
without entailing the necessity of loss of money or time.
“While you are at work doing something for your brother Rotarian
or something for your community through Rotary your brother
Rotarian is doing something or saying something for you; and did
you ever stop to think how much more one can accomplish when he
is working for other fellow than he can when he is working for
himself? Words carry much further when separated from the
appearance of selfish interest because they are believed. It
would be a mean old prank to play upon the world but what would
be the result if you spent all of your time judiciously booming
my business and I did likewise in regard to yours? Why, we would
just about treble our earning power, that in what would happen.
But all of that is aside from the present question. Is business
the only thing to be thought of in Rotary?
“Beware of the scheme which is so obviously good that it
presents on its face no objectionable features. There are many
species of gold brick in this world of ours but there is no
royal road to success nor to wealth. Even Rotary as an open
sesame to unlimited riches would be a failure. We might just as
well look these facts in the face now as to let them hump us
unexpectedly in the future.
“The Rotary scheme on the face of it looks theoretically
correct. It looks almost too correct. The idea of having two or
tree hundred men in non‑competitive lines looking out for your
interests all of the time looks wildly seductive. If it worked
out in practice as it does on the face of it in theory, we would
soon corner all of the business there is in the world. But we
won’t, and thank fortune we don't desire to, but why won't we?
Because human nature is human nature. While it is true that it
is human nature to desire to sell in a non ‑competitive market
it is also true that it is human nature to desire to buy in a
competitive market.
“Man in so constituted that he can and does at one and the same
time both love and hate competition. He loves it on one side and
hates it on the other and when one both loves and hates a thing
my advice to him is to go easy or he is likely to do something
to it that he will be sorry for. Don't attempt to kill off poor
old competition. It has served us long and faithfully. It's a
tractable brute if treated right. Save it if only for the good
it has done. We may need it most anytime. If we totally
annihilate competition, sooner or later someone, who will view
his membership as a rich opportunity for easy plucking, is bound
to get in our club and he will be followed by others of the same
ilk. Let it be known that loyalty to Rotary requires no man to
pay higher prices to Rotarians than are charged by their
competitors. It is a characteristic of the American to revolt
against conditions which bind him to do certain things. He will
do freely and voluntarily for persons whom he highly regards
every thing without reason. The most valuable asset to your
business and mine is the man who patronizes us because he likes
us or likes our goods. One man of that character is worth more
to us than a city full of men under coercion to patronize us.
A
Mark of Quality.
“The Rotary mark must become a guarantee of quality. Membership
in a Rotary Club must be equivalent to an A1 rating as to credit
goods and service.
“
I believe in every word that has been spoken by Mr. Vigorously
Definite. There is nothing dishonorable about straightforward
business find it where you will. Business is not undergoing
trial in this tribunal.
“Our friend Cash Discount has drain a very vivid and impressive
picture of the possible efficacy of Rotary as a money making
machine and within limitations and with allowances for
attributes of human nature which he has not seen fit to
consider, the picture is true but all that he has said and more
could with equal truth be said of Rotary as a power in civic
affairs. If perfection could be attained in Rotary we would have
a club in which every line of business and every profession
would be represented. This would mean that we would have a point
of contract, so to speak, at which our club would come in touch
with every person in our respective cities who is engaged in
business or the practice of any profession. It would be
interesting to observe a test of the power of Rotary working for
some common but altruistic cause.
“It is true, as stated, that nearly every city has its
commercial organizations but there is room for more and moreover
most of these organizations are so busy shouting Greater New
York, Greater Chicago, etc., that they have no time to shout
Better New York, Better Chicago, etc.
Rotary is a new concentration of forces and possesses
potentialities which no other club or organization possesses.
This may be said of it even in its local aspect. When considered
in its National aspect it occupies a position which is unique,
without parallel. There is no civic or semi-civic organization
in existence which is in a position to exercise the influence on
national affairs that Rotary is. Entrenched as it is in every
important American city its power to sway national legislation
to the right is supreme in all clubdom.
“May our visions become enlarged. We need a wider perspective
and a fuller patriotism in Rotary.
“We must keep up the standard of membership. One's loyalty to
Rotary may often he measured by the caliber of the men whose
applications for membership he brings in. If he reaches up above
himself for his candidates, it means that he has the welfare of
Rotary at heart. If he stoops down to drag a makeshift of a
business friend or customer on board, it generally means that he
has his own individual welfare at heart and thinks to derive
business benefit from the favor he has conferred. It would be
difficult to fathom the depth of the injury such motives can be
responsible for in Rotary.
“I am going to say to you Brother Cash Discount that it is my
own belief that Rotary will get the best results, even if the
results be measured in dollars and cents, if it does not spend
all of its time in bookkeeping and in counting money gained by
its influence. Why? Because a too frequent urging of the
business exchange idea will be distasteful to some of the
biggest, broadest minded and most desirable members.
Straightforward business can never be dishonorable, but it may
sometimes be inexpedient. It is human nature to desire a little
variety in life and, moreover, it is easier to accomplish
results, whether business or other results, if one is well
thought of in his community. The same thing may he said of
clubs. Rotary's growth will be stronger and more permanent if it
is well thought of in the communities in which it is planted.
“The way for a person or a club to be well thought of in its
community is to do something for the community. The American
people have been educated up to the point where they make
insistent demand for a certain measure of civic activities on
the part of club. If you have never done anything in that line
before it is time that you began. I wish that you could have
observed the activity with which our club absorbed the good
fellow idea last month and how the fellows went to all parts of
our city delivering Christmas toys to toyless kids. The
opportunities to do things are simply legion and becoming more
numerous as civilization advances. It is marvelous how easy it
is when once you have started. If you can't serve at first
actively you can at least serve passively. You can sit and
listen to some public speaker while he talks on some live
subject of local interest. It will be an education to you and a
good advertisement for your club. The papers will give the
speaker some space and the people of your city will be brought
to a realization that you are at least passively interested in
public affairs.
“The business part of your program should quite frequently be
given a rest. All occasional bit of fun will help some, but I
don't need to boost that game. You will get it anyhow. A few
years ago, fun would have filled every requirement, but we are
getting to the point where recreation and frolic do not
necessarily seem synonymous. The mind of the normal adult of
this day and age turns for its recreation toward the
consideration of things which do not pertain to self.
The Golden Rule in Business.
If
Rotary is ever accused of anything disagreeable, it will be
accused of selfishness. Our exclusiveness may subject us to
criticism on that score. Tell accusers that the antithesis of
egoism is altruism and Rotary gives members an opportunity help
as well as be helped. Many members who, in joining, have been
animated largely by a desire to he helped, have, on the maturing
of acquaintance, found their chief pleasure in helping.
“What a satisfaction it is to take or to send business to a
friend. This particularly true in large cities where the vast
majority of the people are unknown to each other. What a
pleasure to emerge from a swirling current of strange faces with
its river like tides and back tides, eddying pools and rapids,
into the haven of a friend's shop.
I
have never felt myself under positive obligations to patronize
anyone in Rotary and yet I do patronize Rotarians. I can’t help
it but I have a mortal dread of strangers. The habit of
patronizing Rotarians is becoming more fixed as time goes on.
Nearly every month I find myself opening up a new account with
some Rotarian. I consider my membership worth while, if only
for the opportunity it affords me to patronize friends.
“In a nut‑shell my ambition is to do as much for the other club
members as any one in our club. I will take my chances as to the
recompense, and after I have gotten through doing things for
individual club members, I want to do something specifically for
the good of the club and for the good of the city in which I
live.
“Acquaintance begets business. That is certain. The very
formation of Rotary makes business exchange inevitable. As a
business asset memberships will increase greatly in value, not
daily but yearly. Good things come slowly. Business relations,
once started, will continue. You are given opportunity to mingle
with men, none of whom is a competitor with the other. This is
the only really logical club that has a business plank in its
platform that was ever devised. I am an architect. What sort of
a chance do I have of getting business when I attend a meeting
of the Architects' Club. Every man present is a rabid
competitor. How about my chances of getting business out of our
Commercial Club? There are one hundred and forty‑six architects
besides myself in that organization, but in Rotary every member
is a possible client of mine. While it is my belief that
business should be the cement that binds the parts of our
structure together, it should not constitute the entire
structure.
“We are liable to put our good friend business in the center of
the platform and keep him there all the time. I am opposed to
this:
“First, because I think that a little change once in a while
will do us good and that we will become narrow and contracted in
our views if we permit ourselves to think business and count
dollars all the time, and besides altruism is men's fun.
“Second, because I think that a little change once in a while
will do business good.
“Third, and last, but not least, because I believe that a little
change once in awhile will do Rotarianism good and lead to its
being highly respected in our cities, our states, our country
and throughout the world.”
Thus closing, Mr. Optimistic Equilibrium resumes his seat.
My
closing remarks on an occasion of that character would be very
few. It would not be unlike me to say that it has given me much
pleasure to hear the earnest words of the four speakers, Messrs.
Ethical Standard, Vigorously Definite, Cash Discount, and
Altruistic Equilibrium, the Allegorical Quartette, and that I
believe that nearly all of the members of every Rotary Club in
existence would readily fall into one or another of three
classes.
First. Those who believe with Mr. Ethical Standard that business
should have no part in the club life of Rotary.
Second. Those who believe with Mr. Cash Discount that business
should constitute the entire club life of Rotary.
Third. Those who believe with Mr. Altruistic Equilibrium that
life in Rotary should consist of a rational mixture of business
with civic activities and good fellowship.
Perhaps near one or the other of these view points, lies that
which shall generally be accepted as true Rotarian philosophy,
understood and respected by Rotarian and non‑Rotarian alike.
There should be no occasion for meeting behind closed doors. If
Rotarianism cannot stand the test of trial before a jury
comprised of the entire American people, then it lacks
rationality and should be changed. The perfection of wisdom has
not as yet been attained by finite mind. To develop is to live
and not long after the cessation of development comes the day
when it becomes necessary to lead something out behind the barn
and perforate it. Then come the crowd dressed like pall bearers.
No
doctrine is immune from criticism. It is the part of wisdom to
profit from rational criticism, not as much because of what
other people think of us as because of what they cause us to
think of ourselves.
Let us be in a position to defend ourselves in the event that
Rotary undergoes trial, not by stentorian shouting of
meaningless words but by logic that convinces. It is human
nature to try people. Martin Luther was tried by the diet at
Worms, and the accused became accuser. If we put Rotary on the
highest possible plane and keep it there, we shall experience no
difficulty in obtaining witnesses the day our case is set. A
grave responsibility lies on your shoulders and mine and let us
for a moment hark back to the nonverbal text of the preceding
pages "Toleration" then devote ourselves; first, to serious
thought; second, to expression thereof. Rotary is a huge,
powerful machine. Unguided, it could thrash down the aisles of
time a menace to all mankind. Well directed it will become a
humanizing instrumentality of which we need not be ashamed. With
the realization of power, come men's greatest temptations and in
their subjugation, the greatest and most lasting satisfaction.
Now, Rotarians of the United States and of Canada, what say you?
Which side of the debate would you take and why? We want to hear
from you.
Yours, fraternally and very sincerely,
PAUL P. HARRIS
Chicago, January 1, 1911.
|
