Robert Lampard Talks About Rotary International’s Marco Polo: James Wheeler Davidson

MY FOCUS WILL BE ON THE DECADE A CENTURY AGO WHEN RI (ROTARY INTERNATIONAL) WAS TRYING TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE GLOBE WITH ROTARY CLUBS. THE ON-GROUND LEADER WAS JWD WHO FORMED A RECORD 32 CLUBS. AND HIS MAJOR WAS DR CRAWFORD MCCULLOUGH WHO ORGANISED THE DAVIDSONRALSTON (JAMES LAYTON RALSTON) TRIP TO AUSTRALIA IN 1921.

Davidson followed by initiating or chartering another five clubs in Canada in 1923-4 and another 23 clubs that he formed on his 30-month trip to the Middle East and Far East. As a result, Rotary remains the only worldwide service club that has adapted to the times and survived.

Let us place ourselves in James and Lilian’s 1930s’ shoes. Travel was, of course, by land, water and local airlines and sometimes they had to use push carts, camels and elephants. Communication with RI was by telegraph and snail-mail
which could go to the wrong hotel or the wrong Davidson. Rotary had pre-authorised US$8000 to cover the 12-month trip; it eventually cost US$250,000 plus the US$32,000 of Rotary advance. There were super imposed event like 1929 stock market crash, the Gandhi movement and the Depression. But he did have three passports to go in: British, American and after 1923, a Canadian one. In the 1920s, extension was a priority for Rotary, for the prestige that comes with it, it was competing with the Elks and the Kiwanis (two other fraternal clubs in America growing at the same time as Rotary International). Having maxed out by the contiguous or nearby expansion, they were having trouble extending it further. For instance, the Australia, New Zealand extension took multiple attempts; it also started a new system of appointing Commissioners to avoid rogue clubs being formed on their own like Calgary and Calcutta. Rotary had already promised an International Convention every three years starting from 1921 and after the 1921-22 Presidential year, McCullough became the first non-American Charity expansionist. He saw that two of the Rotaries charged every member a dollar for extension, Rotary was ready.

JWD contributed a great deal to this exercise. He was born in Minnesota in 1872, began his international life in 1890s when he began hosting VIP tours, starting with the famous Lord Stanley and in 1892 he was selected in one of the 15 applicants to join Admiral Robert Peary’s expedition of finding the North Pole. It almost cost him his life, he froze his leg one night in Greenland storm only to be saved by his dog in the evacuation. But, undeterred, he resolved to become a journalist. He served as a correspondent covering the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. When that war settled, he went to Taiwan just before the Japanese invaded it. He was to report on the transition from Qing rule to Japanese rule, and witnessed the resistance to the Japanese takeover which centred on the short-lived Republic of Formosa. He was decorated by the Emperor of Japan in 1895 with Order of Rising Sun for services rendered to the Japanese army in capturing the capital of Formosa.

 

Curious, he joined the Japanese Army, learnt Japanese, documented his observation as he went down the island. In 1896, he accepted a Consular appointment offered from the United States Government. The same time he eventually completed his book, Formosa, Past and Present. In 1903 he took a sabbatical; he rode the new trans-Siberian Railway on his way to St. Petersburg to receive a fellowship in London from the Royal Geographical Society for mapping Formosa. By 1905, he was the acting Chief Consul in Shanghai. He was offered the Inspectorship of Consuls from Cairo to Shanghai but he declined after he developed typhoid fever. During his return trip to the United States in 1905, Davidson met Lillian Dow, and within a year they married and settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

In 1906, he returned to San Francisco, a day after the famous earthquake, found his way into the city and found Lillian and her family and extricated them from among the fires.

Married, they moved to Calgary where he, along with American investors, bought and resold 750,000 acre of Railway land. To serve the new home state, he built a lumber company and, after World War One, his focus became Rotary. He joined the Calgary Club in 1914, becoming its President in 1919. He published Rotary As An International Power in The Rotarian and he closed his article with a very insightful observation – mutual understanding is the greatest of all factors in the development of international friendship, it must come largely from the interpersonal interchange of ideas among the peoples concerned. These principles guided him for the rest of his Rotary life.

Davidson went on and was elected as the District Governor in 1923. Simultaneously he was appointed as PR, finance in extension committees of RI, becoming its 3rd Vice president in 1927. At the 1926 Denver Convention he finally agreed to extend or at least to try to shine high. In preparation for what became the 1948 trip, he sold his company to his staff, he brought up a business plan which he then had with an extension committee and RI board sign off. Same time they appointed him as the honorary commissioner to the North African and Pacific Islands. Then he went to searching for contacts, testimonials and letters of introduction.

He would acquire them by the hundreds from Rotarians around the world starting with one king, three Prime Ministers. He brought out his first set of Principles, the important one being, there shall be included in all clubs, local citizenry. In August 1928, he left Montreal, spent a month in Britain in Europe securing more letters. Then they headed to first Club from Asia in Istanbul. However, he could not get a present commander to agree to a Rotary Club in Turkey. After 6 weeks he left for Turkey and that comparatively became his highlight where he managed to bring two warring Republican and royal leaders together. They met for the first time in years as members of the new clubs. Then he went on to Cairo and he reunited the brand new Cairo club from a social to a community-focused one that included Egyptian members. He did all this by Christmas time. He started the Jerusalem Club. He had to accept over 20 per cent of members being Government employees but it worked.

By this time, he realised he was happening to break RI rules, abandoned potential clause. Waiting for an invitation was not going to happen. He used a more dismal approach to try and form a club every three weeks, he planned which he created for the working community and then from them he would generate names of potential members. Then he would interview each one for an hour. He did 2200 interviews only if you did not become a Rotarian, a remarkable achievement.

He arrived in Bombay in February 1929 during the week of Religious riots. He realised that bringing Hindus and Mohammadians together would be a challenge but he was up for it. Then he noticed that there would be a distinct weather problem due to seasonal change. He finally realised that the trip was going to cost him more because he was going to last longer. Living at the Taj was 10 dollars a day and hiring a taxi driver or car, was almost another 10 dollars a day. That was needed because at that time there were no street names in Bombay. So, a Hudson and a driver at 5 dollars a day and anyone looking at a solar toupee. His target was high class members. By March 19th he had 38 members on board including four knights, one parsi, no retailers as he called them. The club chairman was a public Utility chair, CN Moberly, who agreed but only after Davidson approved some close Rotarians. Bombay, he said, was a hard nut to crack but its success raised the reputation back and such that Paul Harris asked him to write articles for the Rotarian which he politely declined but he did ask his wife who was an English major from Brooklyn. She went ahead and agreed. The club expanded so, rapidly that a year later when RI President Pascall visited, there were 106 members with 9 different nationalities and there was only one club in Rotary that equates them was Singapore with 28. After Bombay, he went on to form a club in Delhi, he went on to visit Calcutta, Madras. Then headed to Columbo.

He started with newspaper owner not only convincing him to join the club but also loan [inaudible]. The funds were dandling so, Davidson sold Lillian’s shares of the family company before they went on to Malaysia and the hardest nut to crack which was Singapore. That was followed with the trips to Bangkok, Indonesia, Hong Kong where he started clubs. Then he headed for Japan and Manilla and then headed home. but his return by this time was a tremendous welcome primarily by the articles of Lillian in the Rotarian and magazines starting in February.

On the way back on his ship, he started receiving congratulatory letters, also from Paul Harris who called him a Missionary par excellence and an ambassador of international goodwill. They arrived in Vancouver and rotary had shut down and little later Davidson visited Chicago and presented his 27th Report. Unfortunately, his health was failing so, his wife Lillian gave the 1932 Convention speech because he was unable to go on doctors’ orders. Daughter Marjory developed a dengue fever in India that reoccurred in Malaya and this time she passed on to the parents and then they had a near tragic car accident. He developed a kidney stone in Indonesia that didn’t help, his congestive heart failure was progressing and unfortunately, he passed away with it in 1933 in Vancouver.

His impact on Rotary was significant. JWD asked Ri to back track him, which they did starting with President Pascall who put 60,000 miles and planted 52 trees by the time he got to the Seattle convention, he was followed by Harris in 1935 and McCullough in 1936. Davidson encouraged more trips and managed to get his club mate Doug Howland to a Charter 7 more clubs in 1933. The Canadian Geographical survey named a mountain after him in 1934, the name never reached the map for another 70 years before the era was discovered. That led to 24 Rotarians climbing or helicoptering into it in 2003. We had a meeting on the top and we phone people from around the world. The trip changed Rotary too, the classification rules were changed to allow people from different ethnic back grounds, the charter size was increased, the summer breaks was allowed, the 20% cap was allowed, the language of the meeting depended on the local language, not English. Lillian’s 30 articles were reprinted in her book after JWD passed away and now 23 of us, 32 charter clubs still exist providing the foundation for Rotary Eradication Program.

To conclude, as James and Lillian inspire Rotarians, they become a role model of commitment and goodwill for all of us today. We achieve it by interpreting fellowships and friendships and by making new Friends. The circumnavigation of the role of Rotary clubs remains a testimony to the faith in Rotary and to the passion for it. As Crawford McCullough recorded in his 1934 Rotary Convention Address, he has done a great service and with all he is the most modest of man. I believe he succeeded or no one else would have could.

 

Your’s is a labour of love, how many years did it take to write this book and what were your emotions and any other experiences you felt while writing this?

It started 20 years ago when I realised that there are three Mount Davidsons in Canada, the fourth one in Alberta didn’t appear on the maps and I managed to find the day which suggested when they were going to make the appointment and eventually got the geological surveys and saw how they made an error. But it was in November. So, I actually climbed the mountain ahead of time and there was no known route. And then I sent an offer out to people who would be interested to climb the mountain. so, walking and climbing, we managed to get all the 24-25 Rotarians on the top. It was remarkably a beautiful day and we celebrated and had a meeting. Before climbing down, the highlight was the Abersons presented me with a vest jacket with the name Davidson on it, and other was we had a satellite phone and we phoned people who knew or would know about Davidson story from around the world. And I remember waking up Crem Renauf
in Australia. He begrudgingly said hello and put the phone down. I did go back and reclimbed the mountain in 2005, Rotary centennial, we had a great party. It is now on the maps and there are four Mt Davidsons in Canada.

How do you think we could have another JWD to increase the number of Rotarians?

I think there has to be an innate determination and passion and then it has to fit with what it is that you want to achieve. When I completed the book as a centennial project, it struck me that nobody had gone and retraced Davidson. That was just an idea that fell out of my approach having completed the book. And now I have done various trips to Thailand and Australia, it is this reception, that is the community and brotherhood that JWD hoped to form that clubs
would connect and bring speakers and connect internationally.

What was Rotarians’ response to Lillian Davidson’s talks?

It was about 1927, the Rotary very officially decided that there will be no woman in the Rotary and that was just before the trip started. I don’t know when Rotary-anne started. But yes, women were not allowed and she had to come a number of hurdles one of which was the discussion was will she present in the name of JWD at the Seattle Convention and the correspondence between Mr Perry and Lillian at that time, in one letter he said that you realise there will
be a microphone in front of you, it was terribly patronizing. By this time because he knew that she was an amazing author, 6000 Rotarians sitting in front, she presented at Seattle. So, she never flinched. She agreed to the
opportunities that came ahead.