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Show THE NEW COMRADESHIP (By Estes Snedecor) A Message From the International President. i T- N .MAN may know what time shall evolve from the mists of the future No man may say today what tomorrow tomor-row shall brine; forth; much less, what will occur nevt year It is possible,! however, so to live that upon the sure , ioundatton Of our good example future generations may find an Inspiration and a base for a social order finer than any yet evolved There are some who look on human progress as a blind thing; a vast, tin-seeing tin-seeing giant pushed up a mountain of' achievement by myriads of ephemeral beings known to men and women,' a greu' Something labelled "Humanity" to which we owe a high allegiance as to a sort of pan-ethnic god; a Something Some-thing In which, in some vague way. Inhere In-here benefits for future generations of individual human beings This is a pagan conception There is no god called Humanity to whom I we. as individuals, owe anyhlng; but there are billions of human belasjB, dead, living and to be born to whom each of us owes something We are ft few hundreds of millions Ol living human beings walking about on a vast spherical cemetery which flees through space at the rate of eighteen eigh-teen miles a second In an ellipse around the sun It carries burled s 1th In It, hundreds of billions of human be ings who were born, lived and died even us we wire born, are living and shall die To those billions we owe the duly of carry Ing on to posterity the great Ideals of love of God nnd man which (Continued on Page Seven) i THE NEW COMRADESHIP 1 1 ontlnued from Pane one ) in tears and blood tiny achieved and' have preserved. It Is upon the sacrl 1 flee, the courage tho intelligence and the sanctity of the mighty Dead thai we who are living near today our; structures either of stone and steel or of heart and Intellect. Rotary therefore honors those who i have gone before, for wo are only a little more than our fathers made u, ' but In that little more lies the hope of! all that is to come. I'pon the broad shoulders of those who precede us, we can safely stand and look a little farther far-ther than could they, and It Is upon our shoulders that the next generation i must stand in order tbat they may sec farther than we. As president of the International Association of Rotary clubs therefore, in this sixteenth ear or Rotary. I give you this message: 0 Live and act In Rotary so tha those who went before you might be' proud of you; ;o that those who comr-i after you hall remember you and love you. , Rotary has put into your hand the) torch of unselfish service, the very foundation of tue great ethical scheme of Christendom; for It as "service above self" when Jesus of Nazareth died that mankind should be re- deemed. It Is for you to go abroad throughout the world with that torch, light nianj dark places, or to leave it unnoticed ' under an accumulation of personal 1 business on your desk, ivotiiry. like' conscience and a college education, isl an opportunity. You may take or I leave the opportunity as you please; j ! but in the nd you shall not escape1 being Judged by your taking or lea I Ing. In view of these considerations, it was eminently ilttlng that Rotary overstepping ov-erstepping the political frontiers of the country In which It was conceived would this year plan to hold Ita con-j iventidn in Great Britain. For notary I la born of the ideals oi the older coun- i tllei even as It is a channel through which those Ideals, rclnvlgorated and! i brought to bear in a practical manner upon the material problems of the present age. shall pass on to I those who follow us. The Idea i or holding the convention lnEdin-1 burgh was not adopted without much thought and a very careful con (deration of Its practicality by the In,' ternatlohal board of directors. There' Is nothing in Rotary which has ever been given more careful thought; no graver responsibility was ever under taken by a board. The decision having been made, th-success th-success of the convention now de-! pends by no means wholly upon tin International and club officers, but upon the spirit of unselfish interest and manly Idealism of all Rotarlans everywhere; for as It has been truly said. "Generals win battles, but soldiers sol-diers win wars," and Rotarians are on- : gaged under the banner of Rotary in Winning over the world to the Ideal ot service and good fellowship among all men, and fair dealing In business. |