{"id":3866,"date":"1999-07-01T01:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-07-01T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/july-1999-up-to-good\/"},"modified":"2022-11-27T01:51:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T01:51:53","slug":"july-1999-up-to-good","status":"publish","type":"rbc_letter","link":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/july-1999-up-to-good\/","title":{"rendered":"July 1999 &#8211; &#8216;Up to Good&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"layout-column-main\">\n<p class=\"boldtext\">Service clubs have a heart in an often heartless                     world, and they should be honoured for the splendid work they                     do. They embody idealism and the community spirit, two qualities                     that are needed more than ever today&#8230;<\/p>\n<p> The occasion was more suspicious than auspicious, coming                     as it did in 1905 in Chicago. Though that city had yet to                     gain its reputation as the gangster capital of the world,                     it was nonetheless home to the extortionist Black Hand society,                     various anarchist cells, and the powerful industrial cartels                     that were then ruthlessly preying on the American economy.                     And here you had four dark-suited men meeting in an office                     building that had long been left to its overnight echoes by                     its workaday inhabitants. Anyone hearing of this conclave                     might be forgiven for thinking that, in the grand tradition                     of men getting together after dark, these fellows were up                     to no good.<\/p>\n<p>But as Paul Harris and his three companions talked into                     the night of February 25 in Room 711 of the Unity Building                     on Dearborn Street, they defied the cynical view of human                     association as a conspiracy of particular interests against                     the general welfare. In a reversal of all-too-common form,                     they were &#8220;up to good.&#8221; For there and then they launched the                     service club movement, which has since mobilized millions                     of volunteer workers for the improvement of living conditions                     for people virtually everywhere on the planet. Today, service                     clubs are striving to eradicate childhood diseases, prevent                     blindness among hundreds of thousands of Third World children,                     provide medical equipment and personnel, promote literacy,                     and do a thousand other things to benefit the mass of humankind.<\/p>\n<p>It all started with Harris pining away for the sense of                     fellowship and community he had known growing up in a small                     town now that he was living as a lawyer in a big city. So                     he brought together three acquaintances to propose that they                     meet regularly for purposes of camaraderie, enlightenment,                     and mutual encouragement and support. They agreed to form                     a club of like-minded business and professional men, and decided                     that their meetings should rotate among the members&#8217; business                     premises. Hence its name: the Rotary Club.<\/p>\n<p>As its membership grew, Rotary assumed the form of a modern                     service club, hosting convivial weekly luncheon meetings featuring                     guest speakers. But the defining point in its evolution came                     in 1907 when it undertook its first community project, the                     provision of comfort stations (public toilets) at Chicago                     City Hall. The concept of reaching out into the community                     set Rotary apart from the great majority of associations that                     had gone before it. There was no shortage of clubs at the                     time, but their membership tended to be specialized as to                     religion, political affiliation, sports, occupation and what-have-you.                     Many did good works, but they were inclined to keep the fruits                     of their benevolence to themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Even religious groups dedicated to aiding the sick and poor                     either confined their activities to their own communicants                     or acted in self -interest by seeking converts. The closest                     approximations to service clubs were fraternal orders such                     as the Masons, Odd Fellows and Elks. Members of these lodges                     supported one another, but by and large they did not then                     see their role as lending support to entire communities. (A                     more recent exception is an offshoot of the Masons, the Shriners,                     who sponsor children&#8217;s hospitals and other good causes. )                     Chambers of commerce bore similarities to service clubs, but                     they tended to concentrate strictly on commercial matters.                     Whereas traditional charities gave money to worthy causes,                     service club members rolled up their own sleeves to work on                     charitable projects, or gave their time to raise funds which                     they passed on to those in need.<\/p>\n<table width=\"415\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<div class=\"quote\">&#8220;The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found out how to serve.&#8221; <span class=\"boldtext\">Dr. Albert Schweitzer<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3>A can-do, sky&#8217;s-the-limit attitude<\/h3>\n<p>The idea of performing community service through a non-partisan,                     non -denominational and socially inclusive club was catching.                     Rotary spread to other cities; the first Canadian service                     club was a Rotary chapter opened in Winnipeg in 1910. In 1915,                     the world&#8217;s second major service club, Kiwanis (an Amerindian                     word for &#8220;we make ourselves known&#8221;) was formed in Detroit,                     to be followed a year later by a chapter in Hamilton, Ontario.                     Most service club organizations today have the word &#8220;International&#8221;                     as part of their official titles. Almost always, they first                     reached international status when affiliates in Canada sprang                     up.<\/p>\n<p>What is now the world&#8217;s largest such organization, Lions                     Club International, was founded in 1917 by insurance agent                     Melvin Jones. Jones belonged to the Business Circle of Chicago.                     Seeking a way to extend its activities into the community                     at large, he and 11 other Circle members organized the Lions,                     the name being an acronym for &#8221; Liberty, Intelligence, Our                     Nation&#8217;s Safety.&#8221; Its first national convention put a distance                     between its aims and those of existing business organizations.                     Delegates passed a resolution affirming that &#8220;no Club shall                     hold out the financial betterment of its members as its object.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As a present-day Lions International publication observes,                     this stance &#8220;was startling for an era that prided itself on                     mercenary individualism.&#8221; It is indeed remarkable that the                     age of the great tycoons (who had their own very exclusive                     and self-interested clubs ) should see the birth of a movement                     with selfless altruism at its core. Yet in a way, service                     clubs could only have been born in the heady atmosphere of                     early 20th-century Midwestern America, with its lusty enthusiasm,                     its passion for progress, its can-do, sky&#8217;s-the- limit attitude.                     It was in the ebullient spirit of the times that, when another                     group came together in 1922, its founders called it the Optimist                     Club.<\/p>\n<p>Though the major service club organizations had their roots                     in big cities, they found their most fertile ground in smaller                     communities and the suburbs. At present, they are not generally                     prominent in downtown urban affairs. Perhaps because of this,                     their tremendous social influence has been largely ignored                     by the urban media and academia. Their activities get plenty                     of play in the media in small towns and cities, but they are                     pretty well ignored by the big daily newspapers and national                     television networks. For the most part, sociologists have                     treated their prominent role in community affairs as if it                     did not exist.<\/p>\n<p>Their boyish bonhomie, sing-songs, constant kidding and                     ritual pranks are seen as irredeemably corny by urban sophisticates.                     In 1922 novelist Sinclair Lewis subjected service clubs to                     the send-up of the century in <em>Babbitt<\/em>, his savagely                     funny critique of Middle American mores at a time when the                     U.S. was full of adolescent &#8220;pep,&#8221; as George Babbitt himself                     would have said. Babbitt is a partner in a real estate firm                     in the fictional Midwestern city of Zenith, and a member of                     the equally fictional Boosters Club. At a luncheon meeting                     which he attends, a ten-cent fine is levied for calling a                     fellow Booster by anything but his nickname, and much ponderous                     raillery flows from the fact that it is a member&#8217;s birthday.                     A Booster makes a speech urging the formation of a symphony                     orchestra, not for its cultural value &#8211; he describes classical                     music as &#8220;junk&#8221; &#8211; but because it will &#8220;impress the glorious                     name of Zenith on some big New York millionaire that might                     &#8211; that might establish a branch factory here!&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Doing well by doing good<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/july1999_1.gif\" alt=\"image\" width=\"315\" height=\"200\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" align=\"centre\"><\/p>\n<p>Printed in the club booklet is the admonition: &#8220;There&#8217;s                     no rule that you have to trade with your Fellow Boosters,                     but get wise, boy &#8211; what&#8217;s the use of letting all this good                     money get outside of our happy family?&#8221; Lewis did not become                     the first American to win a Nobel Prize for Literature &#8211; in                     1930 &#8211; because he lacked incisiveness. He put his finger on                     what, on the practical level, makes service clubs tick: today                     we would call it networking. Of course members do business                     together; it&#8217;s only human. The practice is a typically capitalistic                     exercise of enlightened self-interest: doing well by doing                     good. A most engaging book, <em>Babbitt<\/em> had a strong                     influence on what might be called the liberal arts perception                     of service clubs. This was especially so since it became a                     stand-by on university reading courses in American literature.                     It has the distinction of having added at least two mild pejoratives                     to the English language, &#8220;boosterism&#8221; and &#8220;babbittry.&#8221; But                     Lewis was a caricaturist of the written word, and in using                     hyperbole to make his points, he was unfair to his subjects.                     He did not take sufficient account of the sheer good will                     and honest idealism of the people who wear those service club                     pins, and he offers no reason why they should not enjoy themselves                     in their own boisterous way.<\/p>\n<h3>&#8216;The community at its best&#8217;<\/h3>\n<p>Not that the service club movement is above reproach. Lewis&#8217;s                     Boosters are all white male middle-class Americans of right                     wing views, and they are furious when a strike breaks out                     among the ordinary working people of Zenith. The movement&#8217;s                     colour and gender bars have long since been dismantled, but                     it remains largely a white -collar phenomenon. One simple                     reason for this is that business and professional people are                     able to take time out to attend luncheon meetings, and blue-collar                     workers usually are not. This apparent social discrimination                     has been instrumental in giving service clubs a reputation                     as &#8220;bastions of the smug bourgeoisie,&#8221; as Southam News writer                     Susan Ruttan called them in a recent column. But, she concluded,                     &#8220;service clubs are the community at its best, providing bonds                     of friendship to their members and serving the larger community                     at the same time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, the sniping persists. Up there with &#8220;booster&#8221; as                     a pejorative for the service club type is &#8220;do-gooder.&#8221; In                     topsy-turvy fashion, the arbiters of sophisticated thought                     have concluded that there is something bad about doing good.                     This thinking reflects the pervasive power of negativism,                     which seems to have grown ever- stronger over this century.                     Service clubbers are anything but trendy. Intellectuals criticize                     them for their naivety in sticking to a positive attitude                     in the face of negative realities.<\/p>\n<p>It is true that they are hardly likely to be subscribers                     to modern philosophy, which tends to be complex and gloomy.                     Rather they follow that simple philosophical tenet, the Golden                     Rule, which decrees that you should do unto others what you                     would have done unto yourself.<\/p>\n<h3>&#8216;To build up and not destroy&#8217;<\/h3>\n<p>In terms of morality, it is difficult to fault the Rotarians&#8217;                     ethical touchstone, the Four Way Test: &#8220;Is it the Truth? Is                     it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better                     friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?&#8221; Or the                     Lions&#8217; code, which contains such passages as: &#8220;Whenever a                     doubt arises as to the right or ethics of my position or action,                     to resolve such doubt against myself&#8230; To hold friendship                     as an end and not a means&#8230; To be careful with my criticism                   and liberal with my praise; to build up and not destroy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<table width=\"415\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<div class=\"quote\">&#8220;What we need most, is not so much to realize the ideal, as to idealize the real.&#8221;<span class=\"boldtext\">Frederick Henry Hodge<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>True to their name, the Optimists urge members &#8220;to look at                     the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true&#8221;                     &#8211; also &#8221; to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others                     as you are about your own,&#8221; to &#8220;forget the mistakes of the                     past and press on to greater achievements in the future,&#8221;                     and to &#8220;give so much time to the improvement of yourself that                     you have no time to criticize others.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Courtney W. Shropshire, the founder of Civitan International,                     set the tone for its intense community involvement when he                     wrote: &#8221; A working force for civic betterment such as this                     is a thing more valuable to mankind than great riches.&#8221; Among                     the aims of the Kinsmen and Kinettes is that &#8220;a spirit of                     co-operation, tolerance, understanding and equality among                     all nations and peoples be fostered and stimulated and that                     unity of thought and purpose throughout Canada be established                     toward this goal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>The made-in-Canada clubs<\/h3>\n<p>That phrase &#8220;throughout Canada&#8221; in reference to the Kinsman                     and Kinettes is what distinguishes them from the big American-based                     international service club organizations. Kinship is a distinctive                     part of Canadian culture conceived by wounded World War I                     veteran Hal Rogers in 1920. After going into his father&#8217;s                     plumbing supply business in Hamilton, Rogers applied to join                     the local Rotary Club. He was turned down because Rotary&#8217;s                     rules allowed only one member per club per employment category,                     and the club already had a member in plumbing supplies &#8211; Hal&#8217;s                     father. That suited the younger man, who already had the idea                     of forming a club for men and their spouses in his own age                     group. His Kin movement became dedicated to public service,                     personal growth &#8211; and fun.<\/p>\n<table width=\"415\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<div class=\"quote\">&#8220;Amid life&#8217;s quests there seems but one worthy one, to do men good.&#8221;<span class=\"boldtext\">Gamaliel Bailey<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The Association of Kin Clubs now has an international dimension                     through the World Council of Young Men&#8217;s Service Clubs, included                     in which are 20-30 Clubs in the U.S. and Mexico, Apex in Australia,                     and Round Table Clubs in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The                     Kin association itself says that its 600-plus clubs across                     Canada raise more money for their communities per member than                     any such clubs anywhere. In 1964 it began working to counter                     a relatively unknown disease which struck down very young                     children, and out of this grew the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis                     Foundation. Among a great many other activities, it sponsors                     the Kinsmen National Institute on Mental Retardation at Toronto&#8217;s                     York University.<\/p>\n<p>At least one Canadian-based organization has grown into                     an international movement all on its own: Richelieu International,                     a francophone group founded in 1944 in Ottawa. In addition                     to more than 200 clubs in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes,                     it has 18 chapters in the United States, 44 in France, Belgium,                     Luxembourg and Switzerland, and affiliates in Africa, Eastern                     Europe, South America and the Caribbean. Richelieu International                     is responsible for a wide variety of cultural, social and                     humanitarian works throughout the French-speaking world.<\/p>\n<h3>Around the world and close to home<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/july1999_2.gif\" alt=\"image\" width=\"168\" height=\"166\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" align=\"right\"><\/p>\n<p>The big international organizations do some of their most                     effective work in developing countries. While Rotary&#8217;s massive                     vaccination programs are steadily making the five main preventable                     childhood diseases things of the past, the Lions&#8217; SightFirst                     program has saved countless children from blindness. The Kiwanis                     Worldwide Service Project is working to eliminate iodine deficiency                     disorders, the greatest cause of preventable mental retardation                     and learning disorders in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The service clubs&#8217; transparent good works and idealistic                     aims have made them phenomenally attractive to people outside                     of North America. Lions now has 1.4 million members in 43,000                     clubs in 181 countries ; Rotary, 1.2 million members of more                     than 29,000 clubs in 160 countries; Kiwanis, 300,000 members                     in 7,000 clubs in 60 countries. Smaller movements such as                     Y&#8217;sdom International, Zonta International and Civitan also                     span the globe, as well as the youth clubs attached to all                     the major inter-national organizations.<\/p>\n<p>But the big-heartedness of service club members is best                     seen close to home: in a young female Rotarian painting a                     holiday cabin for children with disabilities; in an affluent                     middle-aged Optimist going out in a city at night to see what                     he can do to help out drug- addicted street kids; in a Canadian                     Progress Club member jingling a tin on a corner in Newfoundland                     to raise money for the Special Olympics; in a Kinette rising                     at dawn to coach a children&#8217;s hockey team.<\/p>\n<h3>Needed more than ever<\/h3>\n<p>Jimmy Carter, who went from tail-twister in a Lions Club                     to President of the United States, got to the heart of the                     service club movement when he talked about life in his home                     town of Plains, Georgia. &#8220;Everything that happened in Plains,                     the Lions did,&#8221; he recalled. &#8220;If a widow had a problem with                     her family, where did she go? To the mayor? No. She went to                     the Lions Club.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite efforts to recruit young members through clubs in                     high schools and the like, the movement has been hit hard                     by individualistic attitudes that linger on from the &#8220;me generation.&#8221;                     Membership in at least some clubs in North America has been                     in decline, and the average age of members is rising.<\/p>\n<p>This is happening at a time when, because of government                     spending cuts, the voluntary services the clubs offer are                     needed more than ever. With their hands-on approach, they                     always did a much better job than government agencies in the                     same fields anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Any weakening of service clubs is tantamount to a weakening                     of the average community &#8211; and every nation, not only Canada,                     is &#8220;a community of communities.&#8221; Perhaps the way to make these                     vital organizations more appealing to prospective members                     is for the public to stop taking them for granted &#8211; to put                     the men and women who wear those service club pins in the                     place of honour among us which they have so richly earned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"rbc_letter_theme":[],"rbc_letter_year":[85],"class_list":["post-3866","rbc_letter","type-rbc_letter","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","rbc_letter_year-85"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>July 1999 - &#039;Up to Good&#039; - RBC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/july-1999-up-to-good\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"July 1999 - &#039;Up to Good&#039; - RBC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Service clubs have a heart in an often heartless world, and they should be honoured for the splendid work they do. 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