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Show THE FAITHjOF ROTARY (By Paul P. Harris) Paul P. Harris, An Attorney of Chicago, Is the Founder of Rotary. . CAN It contc to be tho order of things thai men shall view their trades and profession prliparllj i opportunities to gey . society? Rotary Ro-tary must, above all things, be practical. prac-tical. Civilization has pressing, Imperative Imper-ative needs. Rotary has no tlm. to waste In ihe DUMltft of Impracticable Im-practicable ideals Time Is mom , yea, more thun that. Time represents values not measurable in currency Time is ppportunlty and opportunity Is life's essence. Wheather the aim of niipr' SMn ilo-Ideal ilo-Ideal of service upon the mlml o no n Is pructlcable or imprai'tl;.Me, certain cer-tain It Ik that it is believed by Ro-tarlana Ro-tarlana to be practicable. Kotarians are successful business men, men o vision to he sure, but m. n ol practical Usion; men trained In the learon of thlnaja valuable ami practical. After all. perhapti the verdict of sixty thousand thou-sand Mane, hard headed buslines m. n h tin- best guaranty ohtalnable thai I hi thing w ill worl. "To him who has faith .ill thins possible." but there um other n.i- sons h)i ?e may rationaU; bollevi ihut It can como to be tho order "I things that men shall iew their tradi a and professions primarily us oppi r-tunlttoa r-tunlttoa to serve society, one of win. h la tho fact that then- have been ami are men many men who" have ul-ready ul-ready attained the coveted heights. Thoy have been, of course, the exceptions excep-tions to the rule; but now comes Rotary Ro-tary with all of Ub power, its eQthu-slusm. eQthu-slusm. Its orgatdzjtilon Its team worl;, determined to make the exception the rule, if Kotarv achlevee its ambition U will indeed have lifted th. Ieel ..I human Ideals a little higher than it found them and something ti lls me that the only real failure poaalble to any organization or to any Individual Is falluro to do Its bit or his bit In rulslnir the common level. .'o nr. ?o potent that It cannot help BQm one in some way. some tlnie I say that there n-c men who have already attained the coveted heights. Some are famous; more of them are obscure. 1 know a little old man in my own profession who possessed a veritable paoslon for truth, a paasion "o Intense and bo enduring thai never seems oven to be tempted to do anun worthy act. Instinctively he turns to the truth. Xeedless to say, my friend'a mind is stored with prlceleaa ti treasures which mak.- yacht and lim- I ouslnes. diamonds, rubles and pearls I but baudy baubles To him and to such as he, there is nothing imprac-I imprac-I tlcable about the Ideal that men shall I view their trades and professions primarily pri-marily as opoort unities to urv society, so-ciety, lie knows no other viewpoint, though I doubt not that he would object to our rather high sounding phrase. lie might admit ihai ho likes to get to the bottom of thinga. His is bappi nfe. rich in blessings, yet slm-ple slm-ple aqd :am Id has learned to live. "! Koo.-.i;i Knew the worth- I while life. He had u passion for truth. fcfo loved it for truth's sake land he had a coirespontfing hatred of sham To him. Insincerity was des-plcabh des-plcabh He at all times lived the s' -iiuln. . u-uihful life in spite of all .things, and he lived It In such close 1 and happy union with his children that LheJ knew It. and his Influence I win never die. 1 know "another whose needs are many and whose life is complex iio lis far too busy to read books. He j has little respect for tho man who does. lie boasta that he hits the high : spots only. As a mailer of fact he Mover bus hit a high spot yet Ills fool are in the bog and he doesn't know It. Social exactions, amusement distractiona leave no time fur thought I W 'n :i business booms ho sweeps employes em-ployes into his shop und v hen busl- ness .-lows up he sweeps them out again without one thought as to what the coneecjuencea are t0 be. it has pever como to his consciousness what it means to the father of u large fam-dopendenl fam-dopendenl upon him and who is ready onee. who willing to -lave for those di pendent upon his and who la ready and eager to work, to be told to go int.. the offiee ami get his envelope ih.it i her. uill be no mort work this winter. Mo considers such a matter as not of his concern, but in the sight of God it is his concern. No man hag the right to be Indifferent to what befalls the mer, who have made hlsl success possible. l we. ln tho security se-curity of our home Imagine what It m tna to be pezuillbaa and without work; to sec loved ones-wlfo and 5? bT5" rv f,;om 001,1 ftmi ,n wa"1 ot bread.' And yet our Industrial sys torn Involves that very thing over and over and over again. There are men who had rather face a flrmg squad and bc shot dead than return homo and say those bitter words i have been laid off ' woras. I I his employer of whom I have mido BU nUOH will net be .ten ded n 1 you may have to say about one s trade or profession being, prtmaill ah opportunity to serve society T0 1 him. builnoaa la primarily. secondarM? and all the time a means ti. .n.-K em. the end ofkttin, money 'enourt ao that he and his family may con tlnue their useless eadatencaaHta tmmtl are not planted on the rock ft J ' T- i ice, they arc planted in the bog of selfishness into which his pampered body will eventually bc sucked. i There is a vast difference between the life of the man who has faugh-th- vision and taken It into hia even day affairs and the life ,tf the man who scoffs at it as Ipttpraottcaple; and I 'et. as It has been said, the best of us at heart are not au vary much better bet-ter than the worst of us. What we arc depends upon so manv little and leemingly unimportant i lungs ' 1 ,u' ' olid mind will aci. pt an impression im-pression a discerning parent may place upon i and retain It until habit is formed and huhlt eventuallv results In character. The child of m lf-re-N..-.i.ug par, nts S taught that there j are things dearer even than In, , Tor Instance, national liberie i t Mem far-fetched to assume, then, that the generations that are to come may be characterized be the prevalence preval-ence ol the belief thai mep muai 1 thoh profeasions primarily as nieana Of serving society and that u a I dkWaa to view them otherwise ' To disbelieve m ,ht. j.,,,. . icabllity of the first object of notary is lo .((1nut rL wlv and we are inferior b .s , h woin and men; and that nas not been demonstrated What we need is a raco of British. . , '..:.. 'MlP v. .e. h.iv- 1 pissaM truth and who are pr.-pn-d '-0 : flees for it, men who 5jN v ision to see our splendM '-BfSj the determination t.. n. i Km rlans have "':u,7 Hi- demand Rotirliaaarx cJ ''"'D 7 F die |
