The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-04-19


value of ideals Much of this seeming
| opposition comes from common fal
lacy, that of comparing one thing at its
worst with another at its best. We
| see this in many ways. In comparing
unlike peoples, how often is the lowest
type of one race contrasted with the
| highest of another. Sometimes we
| make this unfair comparison against
| ourselves and our own plans. We look
across the fence at the other man s
success and have in mind some plan of
our own that has gone awry, when in
reality there is not much to choose be-
tween him and ourselves. If we could
put ourselves in his place, we should
find that he. too, had losses and dis.
| couragements
I'm the same way soealled practical
men, sometimes seek to put down ideal
lists as cranks and Missionaries. But not
every practical man is really practical.
The balance would be more even if we
| compared the poor idealist-that is, the
fanatic and irrational dreamer-with
the poor business man, and the good
man of action-with the good idealist,
the man who conceives the great plans
before they are carried into action, and
because no action can be truly success
full without plan, in a measure we are
all idealists.
''The trouble with some men is that
they are practical anu idealistie by
streaks. / remember noted doctor of
divinity once saying that he kept his
thinking and his religion in different
lobes of his brain, and never thought
of mixing them. Now this to ME is
terrible state of mind. / have always
thought that the two lobes were made
to work together. In many ways Rookie
Teller is an idealist, but he doesn t mix
idealism with business. Pullman is an
other man who was an idealist and
practical man by turns In creating
the town of Pullman he made fine at
tempt at putting socialism into prac-
tice. But in business he was arbitrary
and self-willed. The two phases at
work again!
1.-the good ideaiist is good man of
affairs. The practical man is the man
who brings things to pass. The ideal
list is the man who sees ahead, who has
visions, ideas The men who accomplish
things must have plans-ideals. The
engineer is necessarily an idealist. The
Panama canal is a dream. Nobody be-
| lieved it could be done But De Les
seps brought Suez to pass and now we
| believe that in due time we shall see
| a canal across the isthmus. The great
works are accomplished by the COM
| bination of the dream with the skilful
| handling of practical forces, and the
men who do them are those whose i'm
| aginations have been trained as well as
their brains. and hands.
1.-THE Constitution of the United
| States was another dream; a marvellous
| scheme at the time when it was set
| forth. For many years the nations of
| the Old World scoffed at it as impossi-
| BILE. Now the whole world is moving in
| the direction taken by the United
| States
"All business to be permanently sue
| cessful must depend on a far-sighted
| plan. The man who invests wisely
| the sane speculatOr-is the man who
| can see ahead. To be able to do so is
an index of real ability and to him
who can look ahead nobody should
! grudge the returns that come. The
| men who succeed best in carrying out
/ large plans are the men with magma
] ton. The farther man can see and
! the more closely he brings his magma
| ton to bear, the more successful will
| he be, for in this way he is learning
| to use the powers of nature and of
man.
SIN the vast scheme of things ideal
| ism is seen to have more and more of
| place AS we come better to see that
| we are in a universe, we see that all
| parts of life work together thai good
| ness means power, and power the APP
| plication of the highest and best train
| ed intellect Goodness, power, beauty
| with all the other great values of civili-
zation, work together for good. They
are not only good, they are good for
something. The universities hold up the
ideal that all things work together
| That is why we believe in progress We
udht IdIbH iIdt Will
/ the faith built on experience. But we
| also have faith because we see that so
! many dreams come true. All this makes
/ us find significance in the universe
| - Nowadays we see much of the pie
| ture puzzle, the fitting together of dis
| connected pieces to make an organic
| whole. The great problems of life
make a somewhat similar puzzle We
might be agnostic and say that it
| couldn't be done, but that would not
be practical. We have got to find the
solution The intellectual man wants
TO put his puzzle together. The more
he knows the more he cares; for as he
sees things more clearly he finds that
many phases of life that before seemed
unconneeted with him have direct
| bearing on his daily conduct, and so he
becomes interested in doing and know
ing things that otherwise he would let
alone. And this is true of all that has
] TO do with human progress
! 'tNow it is true that man may put
| together his pieces so as to make out a
scheme of pessimism. But that scheme
leaves out some of the biggest pieces
| the great values, such as beauty and
love and religion, Justice. truth and
| brotherhood. Neither will these values