|
|
| SEARCH |
‘This Rotarian Age’, 1935 |
| From Chapter X ‘The Challenge’,
page 48 of the PDF copy: ‘In Australia, a youth movement, founded on Rotary principles, is well under way, and they also have high ambitions for extension to other countries.’ ‘The writer hopes that the organizations of the Rotary type now in existence will increase until the time arrives when there will be clubs for all business and professional men and women and youths who are imbued with the ideal of service. Was it something like that you had in mind, Mr. Chesterton, when you coined the phrase, “This Rotarian Age"?’ From Chapter XIII ‘How do Members View Their Privileges? Page 73 of the PDF copy: ‘Rotary aims to encourage the enrollment of young members. Youth is enthusiastic and determined and contributes much to the movement. Youth, middle age, and old age all have their parts to play, and all can profit greatly in their contacts with each other. In many instances, the abundant energies of youth and capital supplied by older members have been combined with telling effect.’ Also the following two sections From Chapter XII ‘Is the Rotary Concept of a World at Peace Utopian’ pages 61 to 62 of the PDF copy: ‘In April 1931, a most interesting inter-country meeting was observed in South America, when the 63rd (Argentina-Paraguay-Uruguay) and 64th (at that time comprised of clubs in both Chile and Bolivia) districts held a joint conference at Puente de Inca, Argentina. Particularly significant, however, was the meeting of Rotarians of Argentina and Uruguay in December 1932 at Montevideo. This inter-country Rotary meeting was held for the particular purpose of maintaining friendly relations at a time when official diplomatic relations had already been severed. Since the abovementioned meetings took place, inter-country meetings have been too numerous to mention, and the campaign for goodwill and understanding has been carried into the ranks of the young manhood of many countries. Youth is impressionable. Impressions received at the time when character is forming often last for life. Rotarians interested in the promotion of goodwill have therefore turned their attention to young people of the school age, endeavoring to bring about opportunity for travel in foreign countries leading to acquaintanceships that frequently ripen into permanent friendships. One of the first organized efforts in this respect was the tour of the Young Australia League to the United States. The Young Australia League was founded by a member of the Rotary Club of Perth, Australia. One of the purposes was to provide “Education by Travel” to a select group of Australian boys, members of the League, through annual pilgrimage to different countries. Many of the boys were Sons of Rotarians. In January 1929, one hundred and sixty of these boys undertook a trip to the United States, landing in San Francisco, traveling through the southern part of the United States to New Orleans, thence to New York, Chicago, and through Canada, embarking after five months from Vancouver for Australia. The boys, as ambassadors of goodwill, were received and entertained by the Rotary clubs in the United States and Canada on their itinerary. After returning home, they wrote many letters to their hosts, proving that the tour accomplished its primary objective. One of the young men of the League, while in San Francisco, was taken seriously ill with rheumatic fever. The contingent was due to sail for home in a few days and it was quite impossible to delay it until the youth recovered. Into the breach, stepped a San Francisco Rotarian and his good wife, who took charge of the lad, and after seven anxious weeks of fathering and mothering him, brought him to the convalescent stage, and soon after he was able to sail home to his parents, fully recovered. Who can express in mere words the extreme value of the service this Rotarian family rendered to an Australian family 7,000 miles away? It is certain that such kindnesses lavished by Rotarians and their families have planted in the breasts of hundreds of young men, seeds of memory that will grow into trees of goodwill, and produce much fruit of sympathy, tolerance, and understanding. The leaders of the Young Australia League came in the spring of 1932 to the United States and organized a group of American boys under the name of Young America League for a return visit to Australia. This group—because of prevailing economic conditions—was not so large as the Australian group, but the members were splendidly entertained by Australian Rotarians in all cities that they visited Excellent means of developing international understanding are contacts through sport. Realizing this fact, President Muller of the Rotary Club of Davos, Switzerland, has brought together teams from the following countries to compete in hockey matches at Davos: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. Another adventure in international friendship is international summer camps for young men. In the summer of 1931, the Boys Work committee of the 54th district, Switzerland, under the presidency of Rotarian Gabriel Rauch of the Geneva Club, conducted the first Swiss camp for sons of Rotarians. The party comprised boys from thirteen countries (Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Portugal, Hungary, and French and German Switzerland). The first week was devoted to getting the boys acquainted and creating friendships. Each morning thereafter, there was a lecture on a social, economic, scientific, artistic, or other topic. The afternoons were spent in trips into industrial plants and other places of interest and in recreation such as swimming, tennis, and other sports. A tour of Switzerland filled the following two weeks, with the object of making the young men acquainted with the country, its beauties, its language, its industries, and its inhabitants. Swiss Rotarians spared no efforts to make the sojourn interesting and instructive to their young guests. Acting upon the example of Switzerland, Rotarians of other countries have made their contribution to the promotion of the sixth object of Rotary by organizing similar camps. The Rotary Club of Vienna organized in August 1932 an international boys camp at Tantaiier Castle near Radstadt, Austria. One hundred and twenty sons of Rotarians from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Holland, Great Britain, Germany, Yugoslavia, Austria, Saar Basin, Switzerland, and Hungary were thrown together and housed in four large dormitories under four experienced group leaders. The camp was an unqualified success as, despite the language difficulty, the various nationalities mixed in a true Rotary manner, each striving to get firsthand knowledge of the other boys from strange lands. Another camp was organized by the Rotary Club of Graz, Austria in the “Sudmark” Students Home. It was particularly successful in starting friendships between young Austrians and Yugoslavians, and also students from Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany, and Yugoslavia. Danish Rotarians have been for many years interested in the promotion of world-mindedness in young people and were among the first organizers of the international exchange of youth. Families of English Rotarians take as guests, children of Rotarians in other, especially European countries, and send in exchange, children of their own. Essay writing contests in high schools on the subject of promoting international understanding and goodwill has been another means used by Rotarians to create interest in the minds of young men and women in that important subject. Prizes totaling five hundred dollars were given to the successful contestants of the schools of the city of Vienna, Austria, at the time of the Rotary International convention in that city; and a like sum was given to the successful contestants in the schools of Boston the year the convention was held there. The judges of the contests were selected from professors of nearby universities who were especially well qualified to act. Another movement of the same kind, but on a larger scale, is now under consideration.’ From Chapter XV ‘Of Tomorrow’ pages 85-86 of the PDF copy: ‘Rotarians are appreciative of their inheritance from generations that have preceded them and not forgetful of their duty to generations yet to come. The methods of serving youth are numerous. Some of them manifest originality of thought while others follow conventional lines. Quite naturally, the Boy Scouts are the favorites and many Rotarians support the movement by the expenditure of time as well as money. Boys’ clubs of various types have been helped, and hundreds of boys’ clubs have been organized and supported by Rotary clubs. The writer visited some excellent schools for under-privileged boys in South Africa, recently. They were maintained by individual Rotary clubs. Rotarians throughout the world are throwing themselves enthusiastically into this activity. Recognizing the importance of education, more than two hundred student loan funds are now being permanently financed by Rotary clubs. The boy of today will be the man of tomorrow. Rotary clubs have for many years financed Dr. Charles E. Barker’s lectures to high school students throughout the United States. In this way, it has been possible to reach approximately one-half million young men and women of the critical adolescent period and to take to them the most important of all messages. Of scarcely less social value is Dr. Barker’s famous lecture to men, “A Father’s Duty to His Son,” and to women, “A Mother’s Duty to Her Daughter.” Boys’ week was the inspiration of the Rotary Club of New York City. The “Back to School” movement has been one of the activities in nearly five hundred Rotary clubs. The present attitude of the adult toward the boy is quite different from the attitude of earlier generations. The great aim formerly was to keep the boy in his place; the modern plan is to gain his confidence and affection. It is more practicable to lead a boy than to push him. A nation’s most valuable asset is its youth, and it is worth studying. How can the best results be obtained? How can the lives of young men and young women be so directed as to make sure of their future welfare and happiness and of the stability of the government that will come within their control? Taken at the psychological hour it is a comparatively easy matter to switch a boy from the wrong track to the right track. The Union League Club of Chicago experimentally established a boys’ club in a ward that was considered by the police to be one of the worst wards in Chicago, with the result that crime diminished to the point of being almost negligible. The boys of the ward had been switched to the right track. In the day of our forefathers, there were few idle moments in the life of the average boy. His services were needed on the farm, in the store, or whosesoever else his life was cast. Work served not merely to keep the boy out of mischief; it served also to provide him wholesome discipline. Laborsaving devices have cut down the father’s hours of labor and almost entirely deprived the boy of the necessity of working with his hands. What is he to do to consume his restless energy? The question: “What are the boys to do with their restless energy?” is being answered in part by the boys themselves in the various types of youth movements. Many Americans view the hitchhiking epidemic as a national menace and would suppress it by process of law. To the writer, some manner of regulation seems more in order. The temporary camps seem a step in the right direction. To say the least that can be said of the hitchhiking development, it does serve to give energies an outlet; it does give the participants an opportunity of learning something of their own country, of experiencing life as it is, and last but not least it provides many young men with wholesome hardships, and even with characters building suffering of which many are much in need. In any event, if one is to condemn the hitchhikers, it should be some person other than the writer, who in his own youth worked his way to most every corner of his own country and across the Atlantic Ocean three times, in search of knowledge of the world and experience in real life, and suffered every manner of hardship available at that period in the world’s history. What the hitch needs, in the writer’s estimation, is regulation, not suppression. If adult leaders will not arise, youthful leaders will. What then? The certainty that hours of labor will constitute an even smaller percentage of the day in the future is cause for alarm. If hours of leisure are to exceed in number hours of labor, why should education center entirely upon teaching the boy how to work? It is essential that the boys of tomorrow learn how to employ their leisure time. What will business success avail a boy if he lacks the capacity to enjoy the fruits of his labor? Business is important, but life is more than business. Culture is more than technology. Americans might advantageously take a chapter from the book of Europeans. The writer, after many visits abroad, has become convinced of the fact that the people of the older countries view business relationship to life in saner perspective than Americans. The trouble is that Americans, in the process of building up a country territorially great, have speeded up productive machinery to a point where it threatens to get out of control. The development of National and State parks to lure youth away from the neurotic influences of city life into the beautiful out-of-doors seems to the writer to be one of the most promising indications of the times. It is almost unheard of that a true lover of nature is a vicious person. Nature soothes and rests tired nerves. It is a refuge to fall back upon in time of stress and strain. Emerson said that beauty is a necessity, and so it is as far as the higher life is concerned. Let us cultivate a love of the outdoors in the hearts of our boys; it will pay rich dividends. If we carry on faithfully today, the coming generation will carry on faithfully tomorrow.’ |
RGHF members, who have been invited to this page, may register RGHF members, who have been invited to this page, may register If a DGE/N/D joins prior to their year, they will have more exposure to Rotary's Global History by their service year. This will be beneficial to all concerned. *Based on paid members, subscribers, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, mobile app users, History Library users, web pages, and articles about Rotary's Global History RGHF Home | Disclaimer | Privacy | Usage Agreement | RGHF on Facebook | Subscribe | Join RGHF | |