Silvery Rotary

King George V was toasted in water by the British delegation. Herbert Hoover sent the opening business session his benediction. Sir Henry Worth Thornton, U. S. born chairman and president of Canadian National Railways, made a speech. One day the thermometer registered 99-o. Hotel rooms were at a premium. The gilded lobbies of the Stevens Hotel ("World's Largest"), haven for many a convention, were crowded with milling men and women. Funnyman Will Rogers said "Twenty thousand Rotarians walking the streets of Chicago . . . not a one has been shot or robbed. It looks like negligence." The occasion: Rotary International's Silver Anniversary Convention, held last week in Chicago, birthplace of Rotary. Some 15,000 delegates attended, fortified with good cheer, name plates, geographical hat-bands, freedom of the city.

As is the custom at Rotary conventions, Peace, Good Will, Friendship were the words most frequently used in speeches and messages. Thus, President Hoover: ". . . Renewed evidence of the spirit of international goodwill which is so significant a development of our times. . . .'' M. Eugene Newsom, retiring Rotary president: "Ideals may be difficult to define, but friendship ultimately provides its own interpretation. Remarkable it is that the close of a quarter of a century finds us willing to build Rotary's increasing purpose upon that word 'friendship'. . . .'' Sir Henry: "Religious contentions, the predatory desires of monarchs, the thirst for revenge, all fruitful disturbances in international relations, have largely disappeared and with the advance of commerce, finance and trade as preponderating influences in the world today, it is found that in these activities exist the most potential causes for strife and conflict."

Cheering was loudest when Founder Paul Percy Harris, 62-year-old Chicago attorney, made his first appearance in 15 years at an international convention. Ill, helped to the speaker's platform by his wife and friends, Founder Harris spoke briefly: "My doctors say I must speak no more than a brief sentence. How could I, in a brief sentence, say what is swelling in my heart? . . . I'll say merely . . . God bless all of you!"

One session was given over to a discussion of World Peace. Rotarian William Franke, delegate from Switzerland, almost broke it up by flaying the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Bill. When Herr Franke sat down, other Rotarians arose, took sides, turned the meeting into a political squabble.

Among the 63 nations represented was a large delegation from Japan whose interest was heightened by the appearance and the speech of rotund Prince Iyesato Tokugawa, non-Rotarian president of the Japanese house of Peers.

Rotary presidents are elected for one year only, must devote much time to presidential duties, get no pay. Hence no easy task is it to select the proper person. Elected last week was Almon E. Roth, business manager of Stanford University.

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