The Rotary Balita no. 757 (November 4, 1954).

When "Dick" Bonilla invited me to come to Lipa today to speak to you at this meeting, I only expressed my thanks to him for his gracious invitation, but I also said that he was really giving me an order which I could not refuse. It is in the creed of a Rotarian whenever he is asked to serve in any manner that is within his power, it is his bounden duty to t the assignment gladly and to give it his best with vacillation and without reserve. I learned that a new Rotary Club is being born in the City of Lipa. As soon as you receive your charter from Rotary International, this club will be our youngest Rotary Unit in the Philippines. It is precisely at a moment like this in the life of a new club, when all the or clubs and all Rotarians would be most happy to cooperate with the sponsor club and the District Governor or his representative, and with the charter members, in forming a new and successful club.

Rotary has a program to promote human happiness and useful living and the Rotary Club is the medium by which its program can be carried out and its objectives realized. That is the reason why new Rotary clubs should be established throughout the world whenever the conditions and circumstances are found favorable. The Board of Directors of Rotary International has expressed itself especially in favor of new clubs being established in cities where there is a distinct and separate trade center capable of maintaining a successful club.

ROTARY CLUB OF LIPA
From my own impressions of the City of Lips and its progressive people, I have strong reasons to agree with the sponsors and charter members that a successful Rotary Club can be maintained here. On the eve of your being chartered as a regular club, everyone is doubtless interested to hear more about Rotary. You have already had your initial acquaintance with Rotary. As your association with Rotarians will grow longer and as you will be putting into practice the Rotary principles and ideals, your knowledge of Rotary will grow richer and your appreciation of its worth and meaning will increase more and more. This month's (October 1954) issue of the Rotary magazine, "The Rotarian" carries the information that as of August 26, 1954, there were 8,347 Rotary clubs and 393,000 Rotarians in 89 countries.

These are interesting figures indeed. To you who are just getting into Rotary comes at once the realization that you are entering a great world organization. Rotary with its 393,000 Rotarians encircles the globe.
No less impressive is the fact that the nearly 400,000 business and professional men who make up Rotary are of many different nationalities, races, religions, systems and traditions. Yet they are all linked together by their love of Rotary.

WHAT IS ROTARY?
What, then, is Rotary? To give a complete definition is not an easy task. The more we know of and understand Rotary, the more we come to realize that it is a living and growing concept that cannot be exactly defined. Rotary must be lived and experienced in order that its true meaning can be fully understood and appreciated. One has to examine its history, its evolution, and its achievements in order to understand the Rotary program and its object.

Attempts to define Rotary in so many words have only brought out or emphasized some of its important aspects. Thus our President of Rotary International, Herbert J. Taylor, recently defined Rotary as "a maker of friendships and a builder of men." This definition is very apt in emphasizing friendship and goodness which are of the essence in Rotary. But it goes beyond these.
One word might possibly be given to epitomize Rotary in its broadest meaning. That one word is SERVICE. The whole Rotary program revolves around one great ideal – the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise. In order to encourage and foster this Rotary ideal, four avenues of service are particularly emphasized.

The first of these is "the development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service." Rotary gives us an unusual opportunity through our regular weekly meetings to make new acquaintances and to form new friendships, but these should not be thought of as means for personal gain. Rotary is not for the "joiner," or one who joins a club for what he can get out of it. Rotary is for those who seek an ever-widening circle of friends and acquaintances because of the joy that they derive from such associations and the opportunities that they offer to be of service to others.

The regular weekly meetings provide the ideal setting for Rotary fellowship. That we gather and eat together once a week is not the important thing. Rotary is not a luncheon club. It is the cheery greetings, the warm handshakes, the hearty singing and the intimate friendships that grow out of these weekly reunions – these are what make Rotary what it is. They are the cool springs, I might say, that water the roots of the spirit of fellowship which is one of the main attributes of Rotary.

The second avenue is "to encourage and foster high ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying by each Rotarian of his occupation as an opportunity to serve society." Again service is the essence of this precept. Rotary is not just an association of men. It is a composite, a cross-section of the business and professional life of the community – one from each classification. It is this classification principle which make Rotary unique. Rotary recognizes the worthiness of all useful occupations and admits into its fold one representative of each occupation. Each member of a Rotary Club, therefore, assumes a two-fold responsibility – to be the representative of his profession in the club which he has to fill with dignity and honor, and to represent Rotary among his fellow craftsmen. I say fellow craftsmen because it is in that light that a Rotarian is expected to regard his competitors in business.

As a recognized leader in his own profession, and as the sponsor of Rotary ideals and principles in that profession, the Rotarian is expected to set the example in the observance of the highest ethical standards. These standards, as Rotary understands them, require that the practitioner in business or in the professions, whatever that occupation might be, shall regard his calling not just as a means for making a living or for material gain, but as a means to serve his community. Business is service. The legitimate profit in any business comes as a just compensation for service rendered by the businessman. The Rotarian business standard insists that every transaction shall bring satisfaction to all concerned. Only by these high ethical standards and by the precept and example he sets for his fellow practitioners in observing them can the Rotarian dignify his own occupation as an opportunity to serve society.

Comes the third avenue of service: "to encourage and foster the application of the ideal of service by each Rotarian to his personal, business, and community life." Lip allegiance to the lofty principles of Rotary does not make one a true Rotarian. Only when he can honestly say to himself that he is living up to these principles in his daily conduct and in his dealings with others that he can be truly called a Rotarian. The third object demands sincerity. Well may Rotary repeat to all its members the wise words of advice by old Polonius to his young son Laertes, when he said:
To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

The fourth avenue is "to encourage and foster the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional men united in the ideal of service." Rotary's fourth avenue of service has undergone a severe test. It is still undergoing a severe test During the most critical periods of the last two world wars, when passions were high and the actions of men everywhere were being scrutinized with a microscopic eye, the import and meaning of Rotary's fourth avenue of service had to be clarified to correct the impression in some quarters that Rotary is a pacifistic organization willing to sacrifice everything for the attainment of international understanding and peace. Rotary is not such a pacifistic organization, for it stands also for loyalty and patriotism on the part of its individual members. Rotary is against war, but it also stands ready to defend the sacred institutions of free men. Rotary stands for universal peace, and in order to achieve this goal it strives to develop friendship and understanding among all the peoples of the earth. That is the meaning of the fourth avenue of service.

Almost nine years have past since the end of the second world war. But the world is still groping for peace. It is to the credit of the founders of Rotary that long before those two world conflagrations came, the star of Rotary had already risen as a beacon to all the peoples of the world, lighting the way to international understanding.

In its own quiet way, and in pursuance of its fourth avenue of service, Rotary is contributing its share in the establishment of a better world. order. We Rotarians have sometimes been criticized for not being more militant in our peace efforts. Perhaps the critics would expect Rotary as an organization to lead the way in some noisy. and organized rallies for world peace. But these. critics should know that Rotary works through its individual members. In all the 89 countries of the world where 393,000 Rotarians practice their callings and professions as citizens of their respective communities, every individual Rotarian is serving as a daily emissary of international understanding. By their conduct and their example as true Rotarians, they are serving quietly but effectively as promoters of world fellowship.

We are in the midst of a nationwide, as well as worldwide, observance of United Nations Week. Like every individual, entity, or nation that sees in the United Nations an effective instrumentality for world peace, Rotary stands squarely and solidly behind this world organization. When the Charter of the United Nations was drawn up in San Francisco in 1945, officially Washington invited Rotary International to participate as consultant of the United States delegation. Former U.S. Secretary of State Stettinius, who was chairman of the San Francisco conference, said that "the Representatives of Rotary were needed at San Francisco, and they made a considerable contribution to the charter itself and particularly to the framing of the provisions for the Economic and Social Council." In many councils and units of the United Nations, Rotarians have been contributing their share to achieve the aims of the U.N.

We should, during United Nations Week, resolve to reinvigorate our support as a people of the work of the United Nations. We should familiarize ourselves with its aims, its organization and activities as well as its achievements and problems. I cannot, however, go into these, even briefly, with the little time at our disposal. I only wish to express the conviction that the United Nations is entitled to all the encouragement that we could give in its consistent efforts to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems.

With all its admitted limitations, and with all the obstacles it has encountered in meeting the many problems of tremendous importance that have come before it, not to speak of the frequent sabotage indulged in by some of its members whose evident designs are inimical to the cause of world peace, the United Nations has not only succeeded in settling serious international conflicts through its Security Council, but has also succeeded in establishing international cooperation for economic and social advancement through its Economic and Social Council and specialized agencies.

I shall now end these few remarks with the sincere wish that you have fully complied with all the fundamental requirements for your admission as a club into membership in Rotary International, and that we shall soon witness the happy moment of the presentation of your charter. Then the Rotary Club of Lipa will take its place as a member of the worldwide fellowship of Rotary and share in the common effort of encouraging and fostering the ideal of service as a basis of worthy interprise.