The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1924-05-29
THE VALUE OF VISION
(By Randolph Claiborne, Jr.)

Some day, the course or your travels, you may
have seen young man sitting alone has head rest
ing upon his hand and his eyes fixed in the far dis
lance You probably have said to yourself, What
lazy boy; he is wasting valuable time. Or some
day in the class room student may be severely pun
ished for day dreaming and inattention. But are
these young men really wasting their time? OFTEN
it may be that they are but often their dreams
are not valueless In the mind Of the young man
Imay have been taking shape plans for great cathe
dral In the mind of the inattentive student may
have been terminating some new safety device for
the arplane or some static eninator for the radio
or perhaps some cure for the horrible disease OF
lleprosy.
Do You suppose that Alexander the Great con
quered the world without first visualizing his plans
of operation? Rather did he not have before him a
vision Of all he hoped to bring to pass Did Char
lemagne become emperor Of the Western Empire of
Rome without forethought and definite plan No.
After inherting several crowns he meditated serl-
ously the accomplishment of his ancestor, Charles
Martel in restoring the Western Empire of Rome,
and he gave all his strength and energy to the fulfill
ment of this vision until death stayed his hand.
What was the secret of Napoleon success? Did
he dash off without plan or purpose to make himself
master of men? Do you not know that he envisiged
the people under one leadership and himself as the
dominating personality? By day and by night he
dreamed this and thought this until his dream and
this thought true.
Everything that is accomplished is first seen in a
vision. 1t is the man with vision that arouses the
world
Now let us measure the value of vision with the
value of other great forces
First take financial power, and as an example of
such, Harry K. Thaw With. great wealth and
money as his God he brought disgrace upon him
self, shame upon his mother and misery to all with
whom he came in contact With this man compare
Rudolph Teuser, of Japan, with his vision of the
international st. Luke Hospital in Toxic, which was
to be the of binding together the East and the
West in sympathy, in understanding and in Chris
tian fellowship
Next take high place in state and honorable posi-
ton, and an instance of such man with low
ideals hOnOred by of the most popular states of
the Union Warren 7. McRay, of Indiana who pros
tltuted his high office and great privileges to evil
lgnominOuS and selfish ends. He has exchanged the
name OF Mckay, governor of the great state of In
diana, for number 17446, convict in the United
States penitentiary in Atlanta.
Now compare the value of this man, with his evil
with the value of Woodrow Wilson, the
man of the ages, who had a vision for world peace
and world brotherhood and gave his life in an at
tempt to make his vision a reality. Whom of the
two do you think most valuable to the world?
Next take opportunity, and as an example of such
Albert B. Fall who has lately been in the limelight
anu WHO Is now passing INTO OBLIVION, man who de-
serves the contempt of honest men. A man he was
who had an opportunity to give valuable service to
his country. But instead he seemed to have been
for sale to the highest bidder. Contrast with him
Herbert Hoover who was the executor of our Char
tiles and Relief Administration abroad No faint of
crookednesS has ever furnished his name By his
faithful endeavor in the cause of those in need he
brought to himself laurels and the love and appre-
citation of his felowmen at home and abroad
The one had opportunity with no ideals above the
greed of gain; the other had noble purpose to
bring order out of chaos comfort out of misery and
contented people out of desolate Wilderness
OF course, many visions are but worthless dreams
but with vision should create his own op-
portuntles He does not wait to be pushed along the
path of progress The siren call of the god of action
is ringing in his He is moved to labor to pray
and to achieve
For example, take Madam Curie Did she have
any great opportunity? Was the radium ore placed
In her hands, and she told to extract the pure
radlum? No. She came accidentally upon a trace
OF radlum. The possibility of the discovery of new
element stirred her imagination She labored MANY
weary hours to perfect her discovery and finally she
presented to the world radium, the most wonderful
and the most mysterious of elements
Another example of opportunity created bv a man
with vision is Steinmetz, the electrical wizard He
had IN his mind vision of electricity doing the work
OF the world, lighting the world and being used os
necessity all over the world. Did he wait for some
one to hint new way of adapting electricity? No.
his vision created opportunity. Steinmetz stroye
toward that vision until he gave to the world cleo
trlclty IN great number of its present uses
In the same way Marconi created his own oppor-