|
Inaugural Address [The Rotarian, Aug., 1920]
By
Estes Snedecor, International President,
1920 - 21
 0
MY FELLOW ‑ ROTARIANS: ‑ In writing this word of greeting it is
my earnest hope that it contain a personal message to every
Rotarian. No one could be more keenly appreciative than I am of
the great honor which has come to me. There is no honor which a
Rotarian would prize more highly than that of service as
President of International Rotary. I shall not content myself by
attempting to express in mere words my appreciation of this high
honor; but rather would I have you measure my appreciation by
the energy and devotion with which I shall apply myself to the
duties and responsibilities of my office
ROTARY has just concluded, under the magnetic leadership of Bert
Adams, another most successful year. With a heart overflowing
with devotion to the ideals of Rotary, with a lovable nature, a
keen interest, and a generous spirit, Bert has carried Rotary in
triumphant achievement past another milestone of unerring
progress. To succeed such a peerless leader is a task in itself
of sobering magnitude: but confident in the knowledge that
60,000 Rotarians will be back of me in spirit ready to serve and
to co‑operate, and surrounded as I am with a splendid corps of
fellow officers, I shall go forward with a light heart and high
hopes on another year in Rotary's progress toward a higher place
in the world of service.
HERE is my personal message to you, fellow Rotarians: Rotary's
success rests ultimately upon your willingness to live and work
in harmony with its simple teachings. Rotary is no longer a
series of spectacular luncheon meetings. It has developed into a
philosophy of life. Rotary has deliberately created and set up
its own standards by which its achievements must now be
measured. The world is no longer content to judge Rotary by the
degree of enthusiasm with which its members profess and espouse
its noble principles and high ideals. On the contrary, the world
is requiring of each Rotarian a living example of Rotary's
teachings. Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the individual
responsibility of each member to be a Rotarian in heart and in
spirit, and to exemplify its teachings in his daily living. May
it not be possible that we have been taking in members faster
than we have been making Rotarians ? Let us pause and take an
inventory of ourselves and of our clubs and see to what extent
we have made Rotary a guiding influence and a living force in
our lives and in our business or professional careers. Rotary
must never find itself bankrupt with an overstock of words and
raw material without sufficient motive power and leadership to
turn out finished products.
IT
is not my purpose at this time to outline a policy or program
for the coming year. This will be done at the Board meeting to
be held at Chicago in August. In the meantime, let me urge the
club officers and delegates to deliver to their clubs the
message of the Convention held recently at Atlantic City, so
that each club may translate the vision and inspiration of that
great Convention into action and into useful forms of service.
ROTARY'S development into a great international organization has
led us into new and adventurous fields of service. It has opened
up new and fascinating vistas of opportunity. To win over the
nations of the Earth to friendship is the greatest task
confronting the world today. This can be done only by getting
the people of the world acquainted with one another; by
establishing common ideals of justice and fair dealing among all
peoples and all nations and by teaching nations as well as
individuals to be unselfish and tolerant in their dealings with
one another. Rotary is compelled by reason of its own objects
and ideals to play its part in this great world enterprise.
Charles Edward Jefferson has unconsciously placed before us our
duty in, these simple words: "It has come to our age with all
the freshness of a new revelation that we are social creatures,
and that no man either lives or dies to himself, but that all
men live only in society, that personality develops by its
relationships and that we are literally members of one another.
The problem is how to live together in good will and mutual
helpfulness, how to co‑operate harmoniously for the attainment
of worthy ends. All our great problems, then, may fittingly be
called peace problems."
 LAST
summer I was enjoying an automobile ride out over the Columbia
River highway. During a pause it occurred to me that all of the
pleasure and luxury and comfort of that ride was due to the fact
that deep down in the cylinders of the engine there were being
gathered little particles of gas, and at regular intervals they
were being ignited by the spark, which created a force which was
seeking expression, and by the ingenuity of man that force had
been gathered together in those cylinders and had been
translated into all of the ease and grace and motion of a modern
touring car. It occurred to me then that Rotary is doing the
same thing for men; that it is gathering up these nobler
impulses, these heart qualities, and bringing them together in
Rotary meetings once a week, and there, thru the warmth of
fellowship and the spark of enthusiasm, it is getting men to
express their highest and best selves, and we are translating
those inert powers, sometimes, into useful service and into
higher expressions of our better selves. Rotary, after all, is a
very simple matter, altho its ideals are high.
LOFTINESS and simplicity are not necessarily inconsistent. As I
sit at my desk in Portland, Oregon (and I am going to tell you
about this because I want you to help me during the year), I
look out on Portland harbor, and out across the way, to the
east, I see the Cascade range of mountains. Overtopping the
range is that great sentinel peak, Mount Hood, snow‑clad the
year 'round, seven thousand feet above the Cascade range itself.
Often, as the day is dying, and I am weary with work, I look out
and see, as the sun goes down into the west, that the topmost
pinnacle of that beautiful snow‑white mountain has caught the
crimson glow of the setting sun, and no matter what storms may
blow, the mountain, rearing its head to the sky, always catches
the sunlight above the clouds. And I like to feel that Rotary’s
ideals, rearing their heads to the sky, are always catching the
sunlight of God's approval.
LET that, then, be our faith, but our works must be such as
will put Rotary ideals in practical operation thruout the great
country of its birth, thruout every other nation of the world,
and between and among all peoples. This cannot be done by the
officers of Rotary alone. It requires the cooperation of the
whole army of Rotarians wherever they may be stationed. You have
graciously made me your standard bearer for the year, but do not
forget that it is your standard and that you must follow it if
you would have Rotary fulfill its mission.
|
