The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-02-20
DIR. Marden's
Uplift Talks
BY oRIsoN SWEET MARoEN.
WHAT DREAMERs HAVE ACCOM-
SLISHED.
Copyright By Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate

THE dreamers live forever, while
the toilers die in a dayl" What would
lave become of this country, what
wretched conditions we should now be
living under had 1t not been for the
dream of our fo%refathers?
1t was Washington's dream of liber-
ty and independence that enabled him
to endure the hardships of that cruel
winter at Valley Forge. 1t was the
same kind of a dream hat supported
Lincoln through those frightful years
of the Civil war and that enabled the
Puritans to see a great, a glorious
country where those without magma
ton saw only savages and unbroken
forests.
The dreaming capacity is not a
mere phantasy of the brain. It is the
prophesying ability. 1t is a faculty of
seeing possibilities, a forecast of what
is possible to us.
The actualities of today were the
dreams which men laughed at even rs
years ago. We are living in realities
today which were once dreams which
people ridiculed. The dreamers we're
often abused and prosecuted and
sometimes thought to be insane. The
locomotive, the railroad, the steam
ship, the telegraph, the ocean cables,
wireless telegraphy, the automobile,
the flying machine-all these were
considered dreams of the insane by
multitudes of people.
Marconi, the Wright brothers, Pro.
lessor Bell, Edison, Morse, and all
the men who have given us our great
modern inventions which have eman-
cipated us from much of the drudgery
and hard conditions under which our
forefathers lived, would have been i'm
prisoned or huns as witches had they
proposed these things three-quarters of
a century ago.
Take the achievements of dreamers
out of the world and who would care
to live in It? The men who see only
facts, who see only things that actual
ly exist at any time have not been the
worlds greatest benefactors. The
men who have seen and anticipated
the civilization of the future, the men
who have sec and anticipated human
wants a long time ahead-these have
been the worlds benefactors. It is
those men who see teeming cities,
thriving factories upon the desert,
when others see only sage brush and
alkali plains lat are the true civiliza.
ton builders.
The greatest benefactors of the
world AVE been the seers into the flu.
ture: they have been the dreamers of
things to come.
Civilization itself is largely the
work of dreamers. Because dreamers
dreamed we are enjoying multitudes OF
comforts, Injuries and facilities and
useful things which but for them we
should have been deprived of. Be.
u dreamers dreamed we have col.
leges, universities. marvellous educa.
tional facilities, vast libraries, master.
pieces. which nations envy; in fact,
our lives are crowded with things that
dredmers have given us. But for some.
body's dream the very land In which
we live would still be an undiscovered
wilderness. The dreamers tunneled
our mountains, Lave spanned cIr great
rivers, opened our mines Of wealth,
they nave made 1t possible for us to
traVel across continents and across
oceans IN portable palaces.
The automobile dream which people
laughed at 20 years ago is now help
ing us to solve the problem of crowd
ed streets and MANY othar indus+,;o1
problems. II is taking tha No. -
horse, Piaoe VI
norses, making our streets cleaner and
our cities more healthful. The anto.
moDlle is one or the greatest bless
long time. for IT is taxing tban, ~ a
the m~onotonv ~ thair bou.oa 49,
them variety ~ ovrar,onon siVihs
and d~eenening thair Iinan "iuehing
~lutjonizing city uso hv ievo,
into the Country r. is edd,.m people
fully 70 the bealtb ~ ~ onns."rt
ness and nrofessional mon
In foot y nr.oma.n"
nromotors - ~ heai'h