238 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS terial possession. Think of the dream that beckoned Wash- ington and his Revolutionary patriots on through the dark- ness of Valley Forge to the dawn of the day when their ideal was triumphant! When all is said and done, the nmterial benefits for which the heroes of '76 fought, furnished but a small part of the sustaining force which carried them through seven long years of struggle and bloodshed. Indeed, it would be impossible to overestimate the part which ideals have played in every great movement the world has known. We live in a practical age; in an hour when above the clash and din of a confusingly complex civilization is heard the cry of efficiency. A man 's first duty is to be efficient, and our one measure of efficiency seems to be in how much money he can accumulate. We have come to look upon the idealist as a man who has little place in our modem life. We culti- vate our ideals in our spare moments, and we are becoming more and more convinced that the twenty-four hour day is too short for many ideals. This view is the result of a surface understanding of the situation. The only man who is thoroughly practical is the idealist; the one man who really accomplishes things is the man who cherishes ideals, the man who dreams dreams and sees visions and then steps out with dauntless faith in what he has seen and uses the efficiency of this age in making his dreams come true. The man whose life story is to be the subject of this sketch is one who, in the abundance of his success and in the solid accomplishments he has wrought out in the battle of real affairs, has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt the practical value of an ideal. Over three-quarters of a century ago, in the little town of Guelph in southeastern Canada, a boy was bom. He came from the sturdy stock of the Scotch-Irish, who had hewed their fortunes out of a wilderness and had made their homes where but a few years before the Indian had roamed in soli- tary loneliness. This boy went out into the world before he was eighteen years of age, equipped only with an Academy . education, without money, without friends, and without influ- ence. Starting from his home in Ontario he made his way
