Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-08
PRACTICAL IDEALISM
Bv H. Addington Bruce

4 BY III. AQQln2tOn Bruce
rF human progress ever is to be quickened
| as it should be, if civilization ever is to adj
- vance less limpingly, we must find way
to endow the world with a larger number of
practical idealists than yet it has at any
time contained.
There are plenty of practical men, and there
have always been There are plenty Of ideal
| lists, and there have always been. The trouble
is that the practical, rule, are deficient
in vision And as rule the 1deal1sts are de-
ficient in common sense.
The practical idealist possesses both vision
and common sense. So he refuses, on the one
hand, to succumb to the temptations and al
lurements of sordid materialsm. On the
other he declines to rush, or to be rushed,
into courses of action which, however splendid
their aims, are too impractical to lead to ac-
tual accomplishment. 4
He recognizes that this is not the best Of
possible worlds, but that it cannot be remade
in day or by merely dreaming beautiful
dreams. He reckons with both the require
ments and the limitations of human nature.
And patiently making the most of whatever
material comes Co his hand-as statesman
educator, business man, or whatever he may
be-he is content if he succeeds in adding
little something to the sum of human welfare,
joy, and understanding.
Orr to be still more specific the point OF
view of the practical idealist in all vOcations
is much like that of those art lovers who, in
England, are united in what is known as the
Design and Industries Association
The purpose of this interesting association
is to act as link between artists and man.
ufacturers, and to be helpful as well to the
general public who have to use the products
of commercial design. AS first principle,
readily accepted, by the intelligent for it's
supreme sanity" the association insists that
"a designed thing must do it's job or it is
bad design" To quote further from an Off
cial pronouncement:
eff you make drawing-room chair with
frailS spindle legs, so that when any we'll
nourished person sits upon it a wave of ap-
prehension lest he be let down overwhelms his
hostess-that's, bad chair.
eff you cover the seat with velvet surround
ed by chenille tasselS. and thereby make 1T so
sticky that man feels as if he were sitting
on fly-paper, while the housewife finds that
nothing short of a serious operation will get
the dust out of it-that also is bad chair.
eff the manufacturer, thinking further to
decorate it, weakens it's back by a fretwork
or arrange carved boss which sticks into the
nape of an average neck-then you have bad,
because entirely misapplied, art"
In other words, fitness for purpose is the
motto Of the Design and Industries Associa
ton. 1t is the motto of practical idealists
generally.
Like the experts of the association, while
striving always for improvements, practical
idealists as class never forget that only
those improvements are genuine which satisfy
the aspirations of humanity without doing
violence to human sensibilties and without
attempting to subvert natural laws. .>
This is what the ultravisionary idealists
tend to forget. And it is why, for all their
sincerity, they often do more harm than good
to society-to say nothing of the suffering
they may bring on themselves through fanat-
ical adherence to dreams which conflict with
reality.
The great trouble with them is that they do
not think enough, just the great trouble
with the over-practical is that they do not
feel enough. Practical idealists both think and
feel as mankind was intended to think and
feel, .-