Rotary's Power for World Peace

Messages from the President [June 1912]

Paul P. Harris

Rotary Flourishes Best in Countries Where Business Standards Are Highest.

During the last few days the mails have brought us letters from a half hundred American cities, a half dozen British cities, besides cities in Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland and Argentine; all, save the letter from Argentine, fairly redolent with hope and enthusiasm for Rotary; and why not that from Argentine?

Our correspondent, Mr. Enright, who is the representative of the Chicago Association of Commerce at Buenos Aires, says that it is because business men of the South American countries are not as yet sufficiently advanced in the ethics of commerce to understand co‑operation or to understand Rotary. They wish no one but themselves success and their conception of good business policy is to guard closely all business secrets.

Elmer Murphey of the Chicago Club, who precipitated the organization of the Jacksonville, Florida, club last winter, tried also to organize a club in Havana, Cuba. When he came back he said: "I could have organized one, all right, but I would have had to change the scheme somewhat. If I had started out to organize a club the purpose of which would be to teach those fellows new ways to trim each other, I would have had every man, woman, maid and child knocking at my door."

Mr. Murphey is in Italy now and it is his purpose to sow Rotarian seed all over the continent of Europe, but he tells us confidently that his real work will begin when he gets among People further North, among people who believe that permanent success must necessarily be built upon integrity and humane consideration of the interests of others.

Is it not gratifying to know that Rotary thrives best where business standards approach nearest to the ideal?

Success.

Six million per year? Yes, and the fight for more is just as fierce as the fight for the first dollar. The law of supply and demand has some significance in its application to all commodities except dollars. There is no limit to the demand for dollars. Give a man as much of anything else as he can possibly use or dispose of and he will cry quits, not so in the case of the dollar. He will have more dollars and lie will sell himself to get them, if only for the purpose of having more than someone else. If one has few, he wants many in order that he may outdo him who has few. Give him many and he must have more in order that be may outdo him who has merely many. Give him more and lie must then have most. Positive, comparative and superlative in breathless haste.

Who gets the worst of the fight, the man who wins or the man who loses?

That depends. Hats are off to winners, but the world has now progressed to the point where it demands an open and above board win; and then again, the question is, who gets the worst of the fight, the man who wins or the man who loses, and not who does the world think gets the worst of the fight. We are talking of the men themselves, the winner, the man whose income is six million per year, and the loser, the man whose income is merely sufficient to meet the requirements of himself and his family, with a reasonable provision for old age , sickness and things really worth while. Dr. Pearsons earned and saved many millions, but he had a real purpose in view; and what's more, he achieved it. The man whose income is six million per year will be able to leave a raft of money to the boy who comes after. The boy will be able to swim in bubbling water, and he will do it, too, and he'll get everything else that's coming to him and that money can buy. Incidentally, of course, every laudable human ambition will be annihilated, and initiative, resourcefulness and independence will be crushed out, but it's an age of sport, splendor and speed, with no let up on account of the presence of such trivial things as icebergs.

Mr. Dolliver said: "Give a boy ten thousand dollars and it will be bad for the boy, and won't do the ten thousand dollars any good, either." What about the boy who inherits millions instead of thousands? What kind of a fight is he going to be able to put up against the hundreds of temptations those millions will bring into being? The chances are that the winner's son will be taking his coat off at about the same time that the loser's son, after having made a good name for himself, is putting his on. Adversity has made many a man. It helped you a lot and it was a veritable life saver for me. You probably developed more real character that year you lived on ham sandwiches and snowballs than you would have in a four years' course at Harvard.

If the money in this world which is doing its possessors more harm than good could be diverted to charitable purposes, charity would have no financial problems; and it would be unnecessary to intercept the course of any decent, honest dollar going on about its business without homicidal intention.

They have made a law in Oklahoma limiting the amount which a person may take by inheritance, to ninety‑five thousand dollars. There is no limit to the amount one may accumulate if his fancy runs that way. The chances are that while a man is making money for himself he is serving society in some manner. When he dies the service ceases.

But, someone will say, such laws are socialistic, and as they remove one of the incentives to industry, they stand in the way of the world's progress and are stumbling blocks in the road to success. They may be socialistic in tendency but do they really interfere with the world's progress or stand in the way of success?

That depends upon one's conception of the world's progress and of individual success. If the world's progress is toward the centralization of wealth in the hands of a few, and success means merely the acquisition and retention of wealth, then it is true that such laws are obstacles to progress and success; but if progress is advancement toward enlightenment and the realization of success is to be found in the consciousness of having done a grown man's part in the world's work, then such laws are not obstacles and should be permitted to stand and the more there are of them the better for all concerned.

Yes, Rotary stands for success ‑ real success.

Let Trade Divisions Meet At The Duluth Convention.

The most national feature of the National Association is the Trade Division plan. In other aspects the National Association appears as an aid to the efficiency of the individual clubs. In the Divisional plan, we see the National Association for the first time as an entity of itself, divided for the purpose of accomplishing one of its national objects.

You are a member of some National Association the membership of which is confined to representatives of your line of trade. It is a great unwieldy organization and the men you meet at conventions are not always properly representative of their lines, and still you attend and perhaps derive some benefit from them.

Your trade division in Rotary is a compact little national organization made up of representative men in your line who are charged with desire to do for each other.

Call a little convention of your own at Duluth. Let the hour and day be decided by the National officers, so that interference with the regular convention program may be avoided.

It is sincerely to be hoped that each and every Division Chairman will be present at the convention, and that he will see to it that all other Rotarians in his line are there. It will be a rare opportunity. Let us make the most of it.

The Rotary Club of Chicago.

Glancing in memory backward over my various messages, I do not recall that I have ever even made mention of my own Rotary Club, though I have called special attention to the work of many other clubs which are affiliated with the National Association.

My failure to do so is attributable to the fact that I have felt that the interests of the National Association demanded of me a perfect temporary divorcement from the affairs of the Chicago Club. Perhaps he who succeeds me will deem it proper to make amends for my dereliction.

I have Been doing a good deal of preaching since I have been engaged in the National work, but there are Chicago Rotarians, from whose unassuming lives much stronger lessons than those I have been teaching may be drawn.

My work in Rotary is nearly done.

May my Vespers prove to be the real Matin of the influence of the Chicago Club in Rotary.

PAUL P. HARRIS,

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