The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-23
President of International Association of Rotarians
 Visits Birmingham
EXPLAINS SPIRIT OF
 ROTARY IN SPEECH
Be Good For Something" Is Keynote of His Address-Presented With Engraved Testimonial By
 Local Members

text O. Frank L. Mulholland, president Of the International Association of Ro- tary clubs. in his address before the regular monthly meeting of the Blr- rningham Rotary club in the ballroom of the Tutwiler hotel last night.
 President Mulholland, an orator oI power and eloquence. delivered speech full of humanity. full of sympathy, full of brotheriy love. and brimming over with service. He arrived in Birming- ham yesterday morning on schedule time at $50, but due to the fact that the Rotarians of Nashville had kept him tip almost the entire night before he sacrificed the plans of the local Ro- tarians to show him the city, for the sake of some rest At l o'clock he was the guest of honor and main speaker at a luncheon at the Tutwiler and last night at the monthly meeting He will leave this morning for Montgomery.
 My text is not just be good for many men are good who are good for nothing" he began last night ''But rather let it be Be Good for Somc- thing The world today doesn't care what you have; but 1t does care how you got it and what you are doing with 1t.
 The Spirit of Rotary
 The spirit of Rotary tells you how to develop a survival value, an element of value to your community that will remain even after you are gone and that is Rotary. To begin with, you must smile. You go to New York on busi- ness and after a days trading you be- come puzzled as to what to do with yourself. You don't know soul You grow restless and lonesome You, por- haps, start out for a walk on Broad way and perhaps are debating wheth- CT you had better hire a taxicab or buy Ford to drive around to restaur to get a bite to eat when you look acros sthe street and recognize Bill Somebody from Birmingham At homo you never paid much attention to Bill You often pass him on the street sometimes you spoke and sometimes you didn't. You never have been to his house probably, and you do not know his family. But here in New York Bill seems to you all Of a sud den like the best and closest old friend you ever had in your life. You almost reach across the street, grasp him by the hand and with real emotion in your voice you look him in the eye with unbounded joy and exclaim: Why. hello. Bill When did you come 10 town?' The Rotary spirit Is the spirit that puts the Hello, Bill" in Birming- nam; the spirit that makes you smile whenever you meet an acquaintance.
 Rotary is the greatest leveler that has ever introduced itself into this na- tion. No man is great, no man Is It, tic, none are rich and none are poor, where exists the spirit of Rotary To be Rotarian you must above all things be an optimist. Pessimlsm can not exist. Neither can you be a knock CT. But notice, l draw distinction between kicker and a knocker: A Kicker sometimes brings about reform ation, which in order to- get he must kick. but there is no use in this world Tor knocker. The Creator when He 1n1ade the world made all the good things first and then there remained fer Him a lot of dirty work to do So He created the snakes, the toads the Nipers, the poisonous insects, the SCOT pions and the skunks and after He had completed all this work He threw together the scraps which he had left. wrapped them up in a covering of hatred and jealousy, put yellow streak in 1t and behold He had created the knoclker. M
 Rotarians Must Be Boosters
 TO be good Rotarian you must be booster. You must boost, no mat ter what, but boost something. The place to begin to be a Rotarian Is in your own shoes, the place to begin 10 boost your town is in your own back yard. Never complain of the lack of an opportunity. There is always an ,p- pcrturity for he who wants it and is willing to reach out and grasp 1t and usually the opportunity for the man who thinks he cannot find one IS himself Rotary itself is an opportun ity; you only need to seize 1t.
 You must break away from the beaten path: you must mark out line and then follow it to the end. I have heard the story of a sailor who had hut che good leg. the other was of wood. One night he got drunk, start ed home and on the way stuck his peg leg into the mud. All efforts to loosen 1t were in vain and he spent the rest of the night there walking round him self Rotarian must break away from himself. To serve others he must walk straight ahead and get out of his own presence sometimes.
 You can do anything you think you can do. We Rotarians must learn to think big, for the bigger we think the bigger will be our acts. A father one evening brought home to his boy a little bantam chicken. The boy was delighted. He immediately made the lit- tie hen nest out in the woodshed and next day came running into his moth CT with a little egg in his hand. To please him. his mother went into high praises of the little bantam hen. Ohp she cried. isn't it wonderful. Just look :! An egg FEE. cried the boy in scorn, holding it out in his hand. Look tt it. His mother told him he could not ex- pect the little bantam to lay great big egg, but he said she'd have to and he proposed to try to make her do 1t anyhow. Next day the boys father went out into the woodshed and there before the little bantam sitting on her nest hung a great. large ostrich egg which sometime before he had brought from California as souvenir for his wife. And right below the egg. straight in front of the eyes of the little hen, was a card, inscribed in the handwriting of the little boy: Look at this and do your bestF
 Are Not Competitive
 Now. it is not meant by what I have said or by any doctrine of Ro-