"In the life of Rotary, will there be a crisis so imperative, so undeniable that Rotary will mightily raise itself above itself and throw off all that is trivial? These are mighty times. This is a serious age, more in keeping with deep, intense thought than with fun. It would seem that the world has made more progress in the last ten years than in preceding centuries. Theology, law, medicine, and last but not by any means least, business, have simply burst the walls of worn‑out precedent and dogmas that have held them captive and have come into the light of truth and to recognition of the fact that service is life.

Possibly within the next ten years we shall arrive at the point where it will be thought as sacred a duty to train the character of youth as to train the intellect, when sociology will be considered as essential a feature of religious training as the books of Moses. How much better a place to live in is the world today than it was two or three centuries ago. Can you realize the fact that men of those times were burned at the stake just for thinking?"

Paul Harris, writing in the February 1917 issue of The Rotarian  READ THE ARTICLE