We are living in a day when it would almost seem that the person who
does not value vision is neither helpful nor wise. For it is a day when
the people everywhere need an essential vision in order that they may
gain courage to settle down to constructive effort after the close of
the world war.
In other words there are multitudes who feel that there is a far deeper
significance to the opening of the Panama Canal as commemorated by the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition than what appears on the
surface. There never was an Exposition like it. There never will be
another similar to it in the future. Simply because there seems to be
something written between the lines. It is an Exposition in which it
appears to be natural for the sanest men to be prophetic--one in which
men not only behold the star of faith but also feel that the star is
calling them to move toward something better, even if they have to grope
their way. An obscure vision seems to be in the sky of hosts of people
and they are anxious to hear the interpretations of men who are brave
enough to suggest one. They are asking what does the peculiar
inspiration of this Exposition mean?
This book in which the commemorative chapters are written in rhythmic
prose--for which the author need make no apology, in as much as Whitman
and others have already blazed the way for independence of poetical
expression--is given to the public with the sole object in view of
conveying a message that has impressed the mind of the author. For among
the many kind expressions of commendation on the prose-poem, "The United
Seas," none has been more appreciated than that given by David Starr
Jordan in these words, "Your prose-poem has a strong message and many
striking lines. I shall be glad to see it published."
Josiah Strong in one of his most recent books entitled, "The New World
Life," says: "Socrates in the Phoedo compares the people of his day, to
whom the lands about the Aegean were the whole world, to ants and frogs
about a marshy pond. Where would one find a more fitting comparison for
people of the same sort in our day? The development of a world life bids
us pry out our horizon and learn to think in world terms. Facts are
God's alphabet from which we may decipher tendencies and tendencies are
prophetic."
And this prying out of the horizon from the nation to the world--as the
viewpoint of the sons of the pilgrims has been widened from a New
England to a continental scope--is one of the highest responsibilities
and duties of our day. Please remember then that the object of this book
is to help others glimpse the vision. You may say that there is no
practical power in vision. But we have been following the lure of the
Golden Age and the Holy City for centuries. Visions are the only
powerful things in life. And this is what the people everywhere need
now; not only practical instruction but also a vision of something
grander and better than what they now have, in every land; so that they
will be inspired to action. I repeat it: The most necessary thing for
America, the waring and neutral nations of the hour is a powerful vision
of what ought to be and what can be. Men ought to arise in every country
and give the people the vision.
So go forward, O book, not for the sake of displaying any merit of
words. But because you are winged by the mighty inspiration of the hour.
Speed on and in some slight way help our international statesmen and
advocates of peace to carry their message to the peoples from the
nations about the seas.
_Dedicated to my good wife, a lover of flowers,
mountains and sea_