“The motive power of Rotary is friendship. This is true today; the same statement could have been made in equal truth yesterday and let us hope that it may be truthfully made thruout all time.”

Paul Harris, Message to the Edinburgh Convention, The Rotarian, August 1921.

In search for the book of James P. Walsh:

“The First Rotarian – The Life and Times of Paul Percy Harris, Founder of Rotary”.

The out-of-print book was nowhere available, not even in the big internet second-hand bookshops. So I started looking for the English company, which printed the first edition in 1979.To make a very long story a little shorter – after dozens of calls I finally got in touch with the former editor – my Digarian buddy HARRY TREADWELL. After explaining to him that I needed the book for contributions to Rotary’s history, he sent me the books he still had - and other interesting Rotarian items. The Walsh’s books included one leather bound English edition (one of the seven in existence) and two leather bound Japanese editions. Back in 1979, nobody wanted to publish Walsh’s book – it was clearly not to be a financial success. Harry edited the book nevertheless.

Friendship – the motive power of Rotary.

For our Japanese friends, I have copied the introduction of David Shelley Nicholl to Walsh’s book in their language. Nicholl himself wrote in 1984 another book about the live of Paul Harris and Rotary’s history:

“The Golden Wheel – The Story of Rotary 1905 to the present”.

[Having no command of the Japanese language and writing, I sincerely hope that I did indeed copy the introduction, and not any other part of the book].

Introduction 1

Introduction 2

Introduction 3