WARREN G. HARDING

CITIZENSHIP

A message sent by President Harding to the Rotarians of the United States, along with other messages on Citizenship by Speaker Gillett and Attorney General Daugherty, February 19, 1923.

These messages were used in addresses to schools, industrial plants, civic organizations, etc., and were broadcast from thousands of radio stations and formed the subjects of talks at every Rotary meeting during the week.

The first Rotary club was organized in Chicago, February 23, 1906. There are now 1,325 Rotary clubs with a membership of about 90,000 in twenty-seven countries. The clubs are organized to spread the principles of service through the adoption of codes of ethical practice in all lines of business, through work among boys to prepare them for citizenship and by aiding worthy causes for the good of the communities in which the clubs are established.

TO THE MEMBERS, ROTARY INTERNATIONAL:-The individual citizen's responsibility for executive government begins with the selection of the executive. This implies the duty of every voter to vote; a duty that many millions of them regularly fail to perform. Before that, it implies the duty to vote intelligently, to make the vote represent a deliberate decision based on the claims of the opposing parties and candidates.

Finally, the executive being duly selected, it implies the obligation to give him the support of all good citizens in every effort of administration of the law. That citizen who regards himself as a model of the civic proprieties, because his present conduct is impeccable, but who does not coöperate with the civil authorities or exert his influence in behalf of the best possible administration of the law, greatly overrates his own usefulness as a citizen. The responsible officers of government, whether it be municipal, State or national, need and are entitled to the

full and effective support of all citizens in the enforcement of laws.

If the effort of Rotary should be effective in impressing this conception of the citizen's duty it will have performed a most useful service.

ON LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY

Address of President Harding Monday evening, February 12, 1923 at the Lincoln Day dinner tendered by friends of Lincoln Memorial University.

MR. TOASTMASTER AND GUESTS:-No human story surpasses the fascination and the inspiration of that of Abraham Lincoln. The republic pays tribute to-night, and most of the world is doing him reverence, because in his unshaken faith the world finds its own hopes mightily strengthened. Our words are all feeble, because we are dealing with the Master Martyr, the supreme leader in a national crisis, the surpassing believer in a fulfilled destiny, and a colossal figure among the hero-statesmen of all the ages.

Turning over, in the last few days, the promise I had made to add my own to the testimonies that here are to be spoken, I have been impressively reminded of the greatly revived interest in everything concerning Lincoln, which has marked the past few years, notably the last two. I have been thinking of how many times, in the recent years of the world's trial and travail, I have received books, letters, articles, published literally all over the world, about Lincoln. One cannot but have observed how greatly the thoughts of people have turned to this man of vision, the great emancipator, who spoke with the voice of the common people for truth and for freedom. One cannot have failed to note that as the fortunes of mankind have confronted tribulation and distress, the minds of men have turned to this son of the yearning, eager, earnest, simple people, and have sought in the story of his life for guidance in the hour of humanity's trial. To me, this has been a portent of hope, a justification of faith, a reason for confidence that men will not only guide the bark of civilization through the storms.

which beset it, but will at last bring it into the port of a better and happier day.

It does not seem hard to understand why in times like these in which we live there should be such a renascence of sentiment for Lincoln, of renewed interest in the great lessons of his life. For men have come to think of him as they have not thought of others among the merely human characters of history. Lincoln has appealed to them as one who manifestly was brought forth with the destiny or consecrated by an infinite hand to render a particular service, to save a nation, to emancipate a people, to preserve in the world the fruits of the American experiment in and for democracy. Surely it is not strange that the eyes and the interest of a world should turn to him now, when all mankind feels the need for such leadership and service and direction as he gave. A world, a civilization, an epoch-all these are facing the bitter need for the moral purpose, the noble aspirations, the high courage, that he interpreted to our America in the days of its crisis. Humanity itself needs to drink of the cup of unfailing confidence which enabled him to stand erect and unshaken amid discouragements and criticism which would have crushed any less than a master heart and soul.

The world to-day sees civilization brought to its supreme test. Its trial came when it might least have been expected. At the very apex of material advances, when science and industry and invention and culture seemed to have united in justifying man's proudest estimate of his destiny, there came among the nations such a clash of ambitions, such a confusion of ideals, such a crash of conflicting aims and aspirations, as it had never known before. It brought bewildering confusion, and overwhelming amazement to those who had been esteemed the wisest among their kind, and who in the folly of their wisdom had been most certain that such a thing could never happen. And in the very face of havoc wrought, of the utter futility of it all, we still wonder that it could have been.

But the sobering and destroying realization has come at last, that in its eagerness to harness and dominate the material forces of the world, humanity had lost its anchorage to the ultimate things of the higher, the nobler, the spiritual universe. Turning now, in the midst of the wreckage, to seek for whatever can be