Around the Rotary World in Wartime A Typical Rotary Club— We Come Near to It Rotary’s smallest club has 6 members; its largest has 640. The smallest town with a Ro- tary club has fewer than 600 people; the largest, more than 7 million. Somewhere between them there must be an average Rotary club. There is—and our own club stacks up well with the aver- ages for clubs in the USCNB. The average club has 45 mem- bers, and is in a town of 4,750 people. It meets, most likely, at noon, in a hotel, probably on Tuesday or Thursday. Its week- ly attendance runs around 85%. Among those present you are most certain to find a school- man, a banker, a lawyer, a doc- tor, an insurance man, dentist, newspaperman, clergyman, un- dertaker, and a real estate agent —the 10 most popular classifica- tions. After some singing this aver- age club will hear a program. A third of its programs are pro- duced by members and the other two-thirds by non-Rotar- jans and out-of-town speakers. Our club stacks up pretty well, but nature never intended that we should pat ourselves on the back, else she would have provided us with different hinges. —WEEKLY War WHOOP, Seneca Falls, N. Y. e The winning speech is always the one with a good beginning and a good ending—both as close together as possible. 7B-A4 Rotary and Bengal Relief Steadily Rotary has been ful- filling in Bengal one of the main objects of its existence, namely, - “Service above Self.” Ever since the beginning of the famine, re- ports have been coming in from clubs in various parts of the country of the steps Rotarians have been taking to help to al- leviate distress in some of the worst-hit areas. Following are excerpts from a few of the latest monthly reports of club activi- ties in this field of service: It was announced at the Calcutta Rotary club that of the approximate- ly $1,818 realized on the charity dance given by this club, it was decided to send $120 to the Bengal Relief Fund; $60 to the local Hospital Christmas Gifts Fund for Indian troops; and the balance to the Benevolent Fund. The president of the Rotary Club of Bhopal announced that he had wired the secretary of the Bengal Central Relief Fund stating that 50 destitute orphans might be sent to Bhopal for sustenance. Details about the comforts to be provided for these orphans were discussed and a sug- gestion that three Bengali doctors in Bhopal be requested to give some time to visiting the orphans was agreed upon. In addition to a token donation of $30 to the Relief Fund the Rotary Club of Poona gave $600, which was part of the net profit realized on a variety show sponsored by this club. The Rotary Club of Madras, up to December, 1943, had made dona- tions amounting to about $533.40. Collections by the Lucknow Rotary club have reached $750, out of which $450 has been sent to the Rotary Club of Calcutta for its Relief Kitchen. $150 more was sent to the Rotary Club of Dacca for similar work. The Rotarians of Navsari have started a Bengal Distress Relief Fund, the first installment of $150 having been sent to Calcutta. Okha’s total contribution to Ben- gal Relief, up to October, 1943, was about $183.30. The Rotary Club of Hubli—Dhar- war announced that they had re- ceived contributions toward their feeding of the poor, from members totaling approximately $469.50. The Rotary club of Bangalore is cooperating with the Government of Mysore State in their work for Ben- gal Relief. Merry-Go-Round or a Canal Lock? We have the habit of rushing frantically here and there, with- out much aim or direction. We seem to think that if we just keep going at a terrific pace we are getting something done. Ac- tually, we should accomplish much more if we could be calm, quiet, and poised. Dr. Rufus M. Jones points out the difference between a merry- go-round and a canal lock. On a merry-go-round you do a lot of traveling, but you get off at the same place you got on. In a canal lock you don’t travel anywhere, but you are lifted to a higher level. What are we— a merry-go-round or a canal lock? —Rotary NEws, Oklahoma City, Okla. Only One Restriction There is only one restriction placed on worthwhile com- munity work for Rotary clubs —that is that Rotary should not undertake to do what some other organization is doing fair- ly well. That leaves a very wide field for Rotary. If we do not find something worthwhile to do this year and every other year, it is the fault of the club membership and— *—THE DERRICK, Independence, Kans. fo Lincoln once said: “War is no laughing business, yet it is a business we shall all do bet- ter if once in a while we take time out to laugh.”