Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-04-14

made" They kept everlastingly at
the work of adding new wings and
steeples to their air castles until that
day cametwhen an actual world made
supreme demands of them. The sue
t~cessful man responds to these de-
mands with ardor and enthusiasm,
and always does better than was ex-
One Of the most conspicuous char
acteristics Of modern American life is
the persistence with which individuals
apply themselves to the solution Of
difficult problems.
This was exemplihed, also, in the
building of the three New York tow
ers whose builders now are no more
among the living: When the Singer
building shot up from the ground,
there were thousands and thousands
Of New Workers who thought it was
madness to compete with the Babel
tower Of the ~ancients; there were
technical difficulties galore; all kinds
Of ~hindrances were encountered while
the building was being 'anchored"
far down below Broadway, and, the
prophecy was frequent that even
though the building might be COM
pleted some day. it certainly would
find no tenants willing to do their Of
y way up Ill III Shy.
Mr.. Bourne and his associates saw
the difficulties. studied them. kept on
and kept on finding a way out Of the
maze of i~ntricacies connected with
the construction of such a tower
and one day it stood there las the
highest inhabited building in the
world.
Broadway gasped. Broadway Gran
ed its neck-but the building was
fhoPo and fhn,ycor1c ne 0f711,
opened on all the floors.
Also, the spirit Of friendly rivalry
in itself an inspirations a strong
American trait. 1t is not always the
heartless competition of which we
hear so much, but merely the typical
readiness to set and break records.
With its IL stories the Singer build
ing, 612 feet high, was imposing, but
its reputation as the tallest Of all
structures was short-lived, for a few
months after it's completion the Met
ropolitan building was finished: 1t is
700 feet high and has SO stories!
1t is recorded that Mr.. Hegeman
chuckled quietly to himself when he
thought Of the Singer dwarf" a o
pie of miles down Broadway. But,
as a matter of fact, while his build
ing indisputably vas the taller Of the
two. 1t was the Singer tower hat i'm
mediately arrested attention when
you stood on a steamer coming from
Sandy Hook Or on a ferry crossing
from Jersey City; the Metropolitan
was too far away from the down
town district to blend into its con-
tours. At a distance. however, it
looked Is though the two buildings
were close together.
X X X
Come then Frank w. woolwortt
upon the stage-emerging out Of the
woods and hills of Pennsylvania
building up a chain of stores extend.
ing from n end of the country tc
his time for tower building had come
and in almost incredibly shor'
time the Woolworth minaret arose
from the rocky substratum of Broad.
way, soaring $50 feet up into the al,
and accommodating business people
on 81 floors: 1t is said thai ter
thousand men and women are regu.
)arly employed within the walls OF
the slender building, whose ever!
square inch Of space was rented be-
fore the foundation was laid:
The result is that the voyager VIII.
comes from afar notices the Wool
, worth tower before he discerns any
thing else. The first name he invol
unfairly associates with moder,
: America Is the name by which tn,
glitteringly white tower is known. am
if he sees the first glimpse Of Man
haitian by night, it is the illuminated
cupola that attracts him even befor'
he notices the lone torch light. car
ried high in the uplift hand Of tn
Statue of Liberty.
) No, it may not have been necessar,
to erect buildings of great height
/: although the crowded space of New
York makes intense concentration il
one form or another imperative. I
: may be luxury to pierce the clouds il
> this manner, but ever conceding that
it is worth something to find senti
: sentiment-dream or vision. if 70
like-expressed in monuments tina
. are really symbolic of the large
perspective which more and. NOR
gains recognition in the bushes
world of today.
I And it is as symbols that the tow
ers are to be considered even as tn,
lives of their builders were symbols
q new Interpretation Of the chant o
the ancient Christians: