Mohave County miner., 1917-12-29
HOLDING TO AN IDEAL

The following article was written by Bryan Akers 21year-Old son of Charles Akers of the Arizona Ga zette. The young man is at present in New York, where he is engaged in government publicity work The article indicates ability far beyond the young mans years, and is worthy of the consideration of our readers:
 The west will fill unique chapter in the history of the United States-a chapter mythical, yet in herenty human It will be recital of the ideals of a race purely American; of the men whose law was the law of "squareness," fair play, always honesty and the open hand Once violated the breaker of this unwritten law was eected from the "cOurt of the open air" by Headed jurisprudence" Did he de- serve aught else? Had he not been free to do he saw fit, so long as what he did was fair? Had he not been trusted respected, because Nfair and square?" With such unfIagging faith ex- pressed in his fellow by the pioneer, it any wonder that the breaker of this unwritten law dealt with quickly, yet so thoroughly? By the same comparison it any wonder that flair play became the law of the west of yesterday?
 So sprung up a daring yet inherently' human de- mocracy. Have we the like of it today? The big
 
 vironment. Sturdy, strong never fnching from a task testing responsibility, waiting for orders; not bOId but brave; reckless, but unafraid; keen sense of humOr; sparkling vein of poetry riched by sunsets and desert showers; susceptible to radical reforms yet quick to detect misgovern- ment the pioneer whose wife wOm- an. Making mountains tremble, without Ostenta- tion, he and his sought the west the of the expression of hiss ideals. By exacting labor that expression given fOrm not slowly surely, but overnight. In ten years the west-Once the old blood of New England the blood that stOrmed king dom for freedom and fair play, then braved the tenn pestuOus AtIantic-has reformed and carved its ideals in the valleys and the mountains of the far west.
 It was "Westward Hoy It was the quest of free dom and fair play that drove them west. Now, peO pie incapable of going westward, to speak, start eastward, bringing with them the blood of the piO- who had dedicated his life to ideal that that ideal might perish from the earth. For this very ideaI-freedom and fair play-his go eastward, brave the tempestuous Atlantic, then touch the soil from which their forefathers Is this destiny? Is this history? Is this not food for thought? Yet, is this not just human nature-that nature which sought the solitude of western lands for the expres sion of his ideal, freedom and fair play?
 In every war freedom and fair play has been fun damental in the ideal of all those who resisted ruthless system of warfare at the head of which
 despOtism-lOving ruler. Now, by the strokes of the pioneers of today" will the historical oppressor of freedom and fair play be brought to his knees.
 War, the criterion of a nations ideasm, not the vulture of its greed, will gut with cleansing flame, matter how long it will take the institution that has scorned fair play and crcumscrbed freedom.
 After having outlined the questions fundamental this war, what is serenely monumental to the minds eye than the great ideals for which union of nations has given up the priceless fruits of peace freedom and fair play?
 The world war, after three years of terrific fct, clearly sets forth these ideals at stake. It seems as the voice of the pioneer beseechng his ch dren to carry On until eliminated his efforts in be- half of freedom and fair play. Out of silent can yOns over mountains that torches to the sun, across the praires and hills of continent and the conveying waters of the Atlantic, the voice of the pioneer still echOing freedom and fair play, berates in the land from whence he came It seems to greet the voices of his kith and kin-the Anglo SaxOns-the lovers of liberty, the pioneers, tOO who urged against the theory of the divine right of kings" and any order of autOcracy that patented "might is right" for the existence of few.
 Now by the unselfish union of which the United States is a component part, do the Anglo SaxOns to- gether with all Iberty-lOving races, clasp hands and AL. A. sIooI