(Paul Harris, from "My Road to Rotary" page 258)

During the war period Rotary clubs not only met and served their countries and mankind, they not only responded to the challenge of war, but farseeing Rotary leadership in all lands knew the war eventually would come to an end. There was no question but aggression would be repelled and freedom re-established. While helping to accomplish this, Rotarians were giving thought to constructive post war activities. The first world war opened our eyes to the futility of emotionalism. Far more dependable grim determination has now taken its place. There must be a better world organization than the League of Nations. There must be less selfishness; more of the Rotary ideal of thoughtfulness of and helpfulness to others.

So for several years Rotary International has had a committee on post-war activities, studying the problems that divide men and those that unite men and what must be recognized in every country as the rights and the duties of its citizens. This has been done so that Rotarians may be better prepared to make their contribution to what must be done by mankind to prevent future wars.

During the past ten years hundreds of Rotary clubs in the U. S. have conducted some two thousand institutes of international understanding bringing to their communities hundreds of capable speakers, from both the U. S. and various other countries, to present and discuss before public audiences of from 200 to a 1000 people the current factors of international affairs. The total attendance to date at these institutes is something like 1,500,000. A fine accomplishment in adult education! And in addition these speakers have been used to address high-school assemblies totaling about 3,500,000.

Consequently it was not surprising that Rotary International was invited by the United States Department of State to send consultants and associate consultants to the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco in May, 1945, and in all eleven Rotarians served in one or the other of these capacities.

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The record indicates that they made a very definite contribution to the thinking of the official delegates who were charged with developing the charter. Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., who was then Secretary of State of the United States, wrote:

From "My Road To Rotary" by Paul P. Harris, 1947

Hear History "This charter is a compact, born of suffering and of war; with it now rests our hope for a good and a lasting peace." (San Francisco, California, June 26, 1945)

Even before celebrations for the end of World War II in Europe commenced, delegates from fifty-one nations began a conference in San Francisco to establish the United Nations, an international organization designed to maintain peace and security in the postwar world. Sixty-three days later, on June 26, 1945, the United Nations Charter was signed. As early as 1942, the United States had proposed establishing the world body, and in 1944 the groundwork was laid at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington, D.C. The organization was to possess considerably more authority over its members than the defunct League of Nations, which had failed to prevent the outbreak of World War II. Edward Stettinius, who was undersecretary of state at the time, presided over that Allied meeting. A year later, Stettinius, as secretary of state, served as chairman of the U.S. delegation to the San Francisco Conference. Less than a week after signing the U.N. Charter on behalf of the United States, he resigned his cabinet post to become the U.S. representative to the United Nations. The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly occurred on January 10, 1946, in London, England.

Stettinius, Edward Reilly, Jr.

1900-1949, American statesman and industrialist, b. Chicago. He held (1926-34) several executive posts in the General Motors Corp., and in 1938 he became chairman of the board of the U.S. Steel Corp. He resigned (1940) as a business executive to join the National Defense Advisory Commission. After serving as priorities director in the Office of Production Management and as lend-lease administrator (1941-43), he was (1943-44) Undersecretary of State and presided at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference (1944). Succeeding (Nov., 1944) Cordell Hull as Secretary of State, Stettinius attended the Yalta Conference and was chairman of the U.S. delegation to the San Francisco Conference. He resigned (June, 1945) his cabinet post and served (1945-46) as U.S. representative to the United Nations. He wrote Roosevelt and the Russians (1949).