Glenn C. Mead, who the first President of the International Association of Rotary Clubs (now Rotary International), in 1912-1913, spoke out on the concept of Service in the March 1934 issue of The Rotarian, on page 49. Under the banner of a Past President's Page, Mead explains the interpretation of Service under which he served.

Doug Rudman

Service Begins at Home

By Glenn C. Mead

THE CONCISE OXFORD Dictionary defines Rotary as “a United States and British society with many branches for international service to humanity, originally named from clubs entertaining in rotation.” When the writer took exception to this definition he was informed by the editor that friends and critics of Rotary gave such varying descriptions of it that definition became difficult. We will all agree to that and no definition of Rotary will be undertaken here.

At the time this Dictionary was published, however, there were at least fifty different countries represented in Rotary and therefore geographically the definition was one twenty-fifth right; it was almost as far off from accuracy in its attempt to indicate the purpose of Rotary.

There is no finer word in any language than “Service” and none that expresses a nobler sentiment, but it has been overworked ad nauseam and commercialized right and left. When a word or idea of [this kind becomes common and is lightly used, the effect is to cheapen it and deprive it of its character and appeal. Was it Madame Roland who exclaimed “O Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!” So might a Rotarian or Kiwanian lament, “O Service, what folly and pretense are oft-times put forward in thy name!”

Obviously the basic idea in Rotary's two slogans is Service of some kind. The first one came early from that philosopher of business, Arthur Sheldon—”He profits most who serves best.” It may be that at the time Dr. Sheldon was thinking of business profit; at any rate from time to time high-minded Rotarians have feared that implication and the shorter motto of “Service Above Self” put in its appearance. I quite agree with our British friends that one slogan is enough and that to wave two of them is overdoing matters. It is deeds not slogans that count. Rotary has been so sincere and effective on the practical side of its idealism that if there ever was a danger of frittering away its opportunities in formulating the ritual of a Service cult, that danger has long since passed.

First of all it is our duty to understand just what kind of Service Rotary was organized and created to perform and then hew to the line. Our obligation is a particularly heavy one because other organizations have picked up the trail that we blazed—Kiwanis, Lions, and the rest, and all are known, at least in the United States and Canada, as “Service Clubs.” They will no doubt continue to be influenced and guided by Rotary as long as its premiership is characterized by intelligence, sincerity and courage.

What then is Rotary Service as distinguished from the innumerable other kinds of Service that we hear about? Unquestionably it is Service in the business field, the field with which Rotarians are best acquainted and in which they are preeminent. Somebody will say that such a conclusion is wrung from us by the tortures of these hard times when unemployment, suffering, and endless worry cry out for relief. But the record tells its own story and shows plainly enough that Rotary was a business men's organization from the first, has always remained such, and is such today the whole world over in 3,641 clubs and some seventy countries.

PREVIOUS to the first convention in Chicago in 1910, the sixteen original clubs had been dealing with local business problems; and when they became united in the National Association of Rotary Clubs, they broadened their outlook to meet the national aspect of similar problems. Of the present familiar six objects of Rotary, five deal with business wholly or in part. Business is the keystone of the Rotary arch and the realm of its activities. For example, Old Number One Club of Chicago with its membership of over six hundred held a Great Business Recovery Exposition covering 30,000 square feet of floor space in the Hotel Sherman, attended, it was reported, by 50,000 people, in January of this year. Over and over again it has been said that a Rotary club is a horizontal section of the business community in which it exists.

Charity begins at home—so does Service. The best way and place for a business man to serve his fellows and society is in his own business; the better he runs his business, the better for the world. That is his job, that is his post of duty — and he is not called upon to leave it in response to some sentimental appeal or to chase fire engines or follow the band.

Some one has wisely said that: A factory where many workmen are given employment, paid living wages and where health and life are conserved, is doing more real good in the world than ten eleemosynary institutions.

In this commercial and industrial age the welfare of the people depends upon business; we have all learned that in the last four years if we did not know it before. Men have cried out for work more than for bread or clothing. Rotary recognized this fact from the beginning. In the second year of its existence as an association (1911), the Portland convention adopted the Rotary platform whose opening paragraph, in substance, says: Recognizing the commercial basis of modern life as a necessary incident to human evolution, the Rotary club is organized to express that proper relation between private interests and the fusion of private interests which constitutes society.

Paragraph four of this platform contained the following provision: The Rotary club demands fair business dealings, honest methods, and high standards in business.

It would appear from the revelations of the last four years that this demand was a large order. But Rotary made good and redeemed its pledge. From 1922 to 1931 there were 157 written “Codes of Correct Practice” adopted by trade and business associations in the United States and elsewhere, largely as the result of the efforts of Rotarian members. Rotary sensed the needs of the age with unerring judgment and foresight.

Everybody knows the close relation of business to international affairs; greedy and corrupt business interests have provoked many wars. Set your business house in order and you have gone a long way towards realizing the peace, goodwill, and understanding among Nations which the Sixth Object of Rotary seeks to attain.