Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1909-07-16

DREAMERS.

IN TINS age there is greet ten
dency to look with contempt upon
the man who thinks and looks far
ahead. 1t is customary among the
So-ca!led practical men to speak CON
temptuOnSly Of men whom they call
theoretical men We hear much of
the contrast between the theoretical
man and the practical man. To say
that a man is a mere dreamer, with u
great many people nowadays, is the
last word. If he is dreamer he is
of no use to this world. On the CON
trary, to those who look below the
surface it appears that this would be
a poor world, indeed, if there were
not dreamers in it, and there is no
good reason for saying that when a
man is theoretical he is not also
practical. The theOrist is, after all,
the kind of practical that amounts to
most in this world and does that
which really counts. The dreamer
lives for centuries, while the toilcr
dies in Il day" some one has said,
and if we look back through history
we will find that this is true The
great men of this world are the men
who have dreamed dreams and not
those who have merely toiled or, in
the language of the times, done
things" "
| remember. during the last Pres-
dental campaign, of reading speech
of W. j. Bryan, wherein he said,
speaking of dreamers: THE Bible
tells us that Joseph was dreamer,
and that he was plotted against
Then he was sold. and everyone
thought he was gone, until they
found that he was storing corn very
quietly"
Alexander the Great was dream
er. He dreamed of empire, and it is
worthy of note that so long as he
dreamed and worked to realize his
dreams he was not only a success
from the point of view of his own
personal power but for the perma-
nent good of mankind. He spread
the civilization of Greece. to the
everlasting good of the world. all be-
cause he dreamed dreams. Caesar
was another dreamer, and in a SINH
+. lar manner he spread the civilization
, OF Rome. Martin Luther, Oliver
Cromwell, Napoleon Bonaparte, the
! leaders of the French Revolution,
Gallileo, Sir Isaac Newton, Christie
pher Columbus, Samuel MOrse-all
these were dreamers, and with them
nearly all the long roll of the worlds
greatest men,
1t is q misfortune that in the
United States to-day, there is too
great a desire on the part of the
young men to plunge into the world
of practical affairs. This is the age
of young men," We hear this often,
but is it after all glory rather than
a misfortune ? Young men barely
finish their college education before
they are plunging into the world of
activity, making a money success.
climbing to the top in business, in
politics. in the public esteem. They
think it all is very fine and the
people applaud. Consider that only
about three per cent. of the young
men OF the whole country ever 90 to
college at all. They have no time to
dream dreams. They do not take
time because dreaming has been
under a ban.
In LatinAmerica the people ma
ture early. Life ripens fast. Young
men OF eighteen are grown and enter
upon the stern duties of life. When
a girl reaches sixteen she is a woman.
She is expected to be married before
she is twenty, and it not infrequent
ly happens that girls of thirteen and
fourteen marry and bear children at
fifteen and sixteen.
Life begins early with them and it
ends early. A woman of forty is
old. DR.. Osler's suggestion that
men are fit to be laid upon the shelf
at forty might very well apply to
LatinAmerica. The South Ameri
can countries are, indeed, countries
OF young men. Consider what they
have achieved in comparison with
English America and with the whole
country. The young men in Latin
America do not take time to dream.
They do not theorize, hence, they are
not practical people. In very truth,
there can be no practical people un-
less there are also theoretical people.
line T. Teruou