Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-04-14
lBy G. S. s~trandvold.l

Striving and successful America
may, in a sense, be said to have found
its concrete expression in the three
tailest buildings in the country, and
in the men who erected them as n
during symbols Of their success.
These three builders have all died
within the last month.
Bourne, who was the, head Of the
Singer sewing machine corporation
when it in 1907 ornamented New
York's lower Broadway with the i'm
mense, If arch%itecturally somewhat
unsatisfactory, Singer Building.
Last Sunday, John R. Hegeman.
general manager of the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Co., died leaving as
one of his monuments the Metropoli-
tan Tower near Madison Square, New
York,
On Tuesday Of the week just past,
Frank w. Woolworth. builder of the
talest office building on earth, sue
cumbed to an illness Of but a few
days.
The papyrus scrolls found in Egypt
tells us how the Ethiopian kings OF
ancient days built their own colossal
mausoleums in the forms of pyramids
-stilly standing as the massive me-
mentoes Of an age long past.
Newspapers Of modern America
with s~uperlatives. of merchant kings
who built towers piercing he sky.
The difference between the a%ncients
and the moderns is this:
While the pyramids in Egypt be-
came nothing more than huge and 81
lent v~isualizations of the glory and
power of Pharaohs-@vanescent and
futile glory and power-the modern
American towers are the expression
of a restless spirit which yearns for
new and peaceful c%onquests every
minute of every day.
No one will claim that the pyra-
mids represent anything but the per-
sonal vanity of those rulers whose
mummies rest within. The New
York campaniles have become the
symbol of intensified activity which
millions Of people. directly or indi-
rectly, benefit. T.
So that the real difference between
then and nowhere and here-is
petriication and incessant progress.
Undoubtedly tn e beginning Of the
towering notwithstanding steel and
iron structures was the air castle OF
the adolescent mind.
Ibsen's Hide Wangel tells Harvard
| Solness: y
"The master builders are some
very, very foolish people, and Sol
ness admits it. Then he asks,
What is it you and I are to build
together" and Hide replies:
"Air castles. You know what they
are-don't you?"
solness seems to reluctantly concur
xwk4~ ho onouyApo. "
well, you say they're the mos
wonderful things in the world.
whereat Hide wakes sarcastic:
Certainly, certainly! Air castles
How easy to take refuge in them
And then, it is SO eas to build then
-easiest for those master builder
who have a-dizzy conscience.
But, really-Hilde was wrong
Dizzy consciences' build no glorious
! demonstrating aspirations form tn
material and create the force neces
sary.
Youth and energy transform the ali
castles from realms Of imagination tt
tangible reality. But, as the maste.
builder must adhere to the design
given him by the architect, so tn
builder of the earth's tallest tower
:. unconsciously-and som etimes con
Out III O0LAll III
original plans Of what was once hi
air castle.
Which is to say anew that all grea
achievements have first been conceiv
ed in the vague mystery Of a dream.
X \
Those who thought their day
work completed when they had bull
their fantastic air castles, are omon'
US. in great numbers: Men VIII
thought they struggled and worked
men who had calculated that al
things perfect and adjust themselves
Now we behold them about 8
pensive. brooding and wistful men
alike in their willingness to place re
sponsibility for their failure and dis
illusion on society in general. to
readily forgetting that most of tn
responsibility rests on their ow1
shoulders and on ambitions which
could not be sustained.
And then the others-men who no
only kept their best illusions intact
but who wove their life's picture GU
Of that stun of which dreams ar
H....