Imperial Valley press., 1910-03-12
Without
 Prejudice
By HAROLD BELL WRIGHT

There is great advantage in being the last man on the job, providing of course that you are the kind of a man who knows advantage when he sees it.
 The wonderful fertility of the Im- perial Valley lands and the astound- ing productive possibilities of this re- zion are now quite generally recog- nized and conceded. It is even thought, by some of the most enthusiastic, that in time our government experts will admit that alfalfa can be grown here and that eucalyptus trees have fair chance of outliving the nur- sery. That the citizens of the val ley are in every way worthy to live in a region of such natural wealth is also recognized and conceded. It is a common remark of visitors that the people who are developing this new land are the finest types of our coun- try's manhood and womanhOod.
 These lands are virgin lands, and all the wealth that older lands have borne is as yet unquickened here. The vast riches that the ages have credited to the Valley of the Nile are all here waiting to be realized, and the peo- pie who are to realize this wealth for the world have back of them the accumulated wisdom of the ages that have gone before, with neither cus- tom, prejudice, tradition HOT prece- dent to hinder it's free use, and they are the klnd of people who know their own and will take it.
 The combination of such soil and ! such citizens presents a fascinating study to the observer and irresistibly compels prophecy. It is not a wild prediction that here, if anywhere, will 1 be worked out solutions to many of the problems that veX our generation. The combination is irresistible. The result inevitable.
 Older communities have not only all that these people have to over come, but, they have in addition, what these people have not, traditions, pre- judices, customs, deepseated and old, that, more than anything else hinder l true development and progress.
 No one in Imperial Valley can say
 Tt must be this way because this is the way it has always been" ''E 1 has always been" means nothing to this people. The phrase has lost it's power to deaden. Prejudice is not a bar to progress here. There are no precedents. Custom is not a fac tor to be reckoned with. Traditions are not. Cannonism is not at home here.
 1 To compare~the farmer of the Im- perial Valley with the pioneers who girdled the trees to plant their thin crops in the Eastern forests is tO compare the traveller on the modern express to the man who got there behind his yoke of slow moving oxen. That these people today will realize | their opportunities, as their ox-driv- ing forefathers realized theirs, goes without saying, for they are moved by the same spirit of conquest and development
 In transportation the best of the OK team age is not the best of the express l train age. In commerce, the best of | the coon skin age is not the best of the age of combination. In me- chanics, the best of the age of man. power is not the best of the age of steam, gas and electricity. In science, ! the best of the age of the black art is not the best of the age of radium and wireless telegraphy. The people of Imperial Valley cannot look to any thing that has been done for their standards. The only standards possi- ble for them are the standards they | set for themselves, and mark you, this people know that the world has learned to fly
 There is great advantage in being the last man on the job providing of course that you are the kind of man who knows advantage when he l sees it.