The Rotarian, APRIL, 1936

Compassion . . . Courage

by Dr. Leopold Procházka

Rotary Club of Plzen, Czecboslovakia

Great impersonal forces wreak havoc on individuals. Cynicism and despair are fruitless; but not so is realistic unselfishness.

To THE man who views problems broadly, it must be obvious that all mankind is a single organism. Any violence to one part sooner or later injures the others. We all live in one big house, and there will not be true prosperity for any of us so long as others are in the claws of misery and poverty.

Yet, as we contemplate our world, we see greedy men wish for things which seem desirable to them only because of blind ignorance. In their confusion, they hate in the service of love, lie for the sake of truth, are cruel in the guise of kindness, and intolerant in the furtherance of tolerance.

Why, we ask ourselves, is there abundance here and destitution there? We are reminded that the report of the Committee for the Relief of the Needy of the World reported that in 1933 two and a half million persons died of hunger, and a million and a half more committed suicide chiefly because of economic reasons. In that same year, men made unfit for human consumption about 600,000 carloads of corn, 150,000 carloads of rice, 270,000 sacks of coffee, and 250,000 cwts. of sugar. More than 400,000 carloads of corn were burned for fuel, some 150,000 cwts. of fresh meat and 500,000 cwts. of canned meats were destroyed.

Had these products been sold in the open markets, prices would have been rapidly lowered, endangering the producers' existence. Had these goods been shipped to distant points, duties and freight costs would have exceeded prices received. Had a legitimate profit been added, prices would certainly have been beyond the reach of the consumer.

Here we knock our brains against an old puzzle. We move in a vicious circle, unable to find an outlet. We can but guess that something interposes itself, thrusts itself between abundance and want. We study the meaning of bits of paper called "money," and bits of metal called "gold." We wonder about measures taken by governments. We ponder economic theories. That disharmony exists, we do not doubt. That something is unsound,. something wrong in the manipulating of goods necessary for life and plentifully offered us by Nature, is certain.

It is my belief that this chaos eventually will he righted in the slow movement of social evolution. Nature, despite her seeming cruelty and reckless catastrophes, proceeds steadily without sentimentality along the paths of causality and will some day establish the longed for modus vivendi.

But men will be impatient. They will rebel. They will seek to solve great problems with radical remedies. But I fear that those circumstances which usually accompany such efforts will prove to be privations and sacrifice-cemeteries for fallen ideals.

But just as we condemn false optimism, let us spurn fruitless sentimentality and despair. The right-thinking man will see clearly. He will recognize what is morbid and foul, just as he will know what is fine and true. While endeavoring to bring about a fundamental change in man's acts and thinking whereby intelligence turns Nature's laws to social account, he will seek to relieve hardships, to soften the discord of our imperfectly adjusted society.

The call of the day is for compassion, intelligence, and courage. Misery and despair do mar the lives of men and women and children about us. Families do lack shelter and clothing and food despite the largess of nature. But it profits no one to be cynical, or to be hypocritically indignant that these people are filled with envy or hatred. The need is a compassion for maladjusted members of our society, a continuing effort to understand the cause of their woes, and courage to lead in a constructive revolution of mankind's thinking and doing.

This is a work in which all should join, but the responsibility bears directly upon Rotarians. Business and professional men, they are peculiarly well fitted to cooperate effectively in a world-encircling effort to promulgate the ideal of service above self. The impulse which springs from an understanding of Rotary's essential principles is potentially capable of easing many cruel woes inflicted by society blindly wabbling ahead by trial, error, and chance.