Weekly journal-miner., 1920-05-12

What ever we may personally think about the chaos all over the world today we do know that if it is ever to be better we must each one .do everything in our power to make it better.
 For this reason 1 am mighty glad ! to have a chance to talk about a new organization which ought to number 1 it's members by the hundred in every i community. l am not much of a i'' 'Jiner"-I have never itched to see | my name on the rolls of any society but this one made it's own argu- ment from the moment 1 read its | purpose as stated on the front of the | booklet: United Americans-Or ized to Preserve the Constitution and Develop an Even Better America"
 l do net apologize from quoting this extract from ;he Constitution"
 The purpose of United Americans shall be to preserve the Constitution of the United States, with the rep- resentative form of Government and the right, of individual possessions which thc Constitution provides; to stand firm for law and order; to foster among our people high stand ards ot individual and corporate con- duct; and to advance the prosperity and happiness of all the people of the United States"
 And again l am obliged 10 quote from the statement of purpose; To the law-abiding citizen engrossed in the daily routine of life it may. at first mention, appear incredible that such all organization should be need ed in country in which individual liberty has attained its greatest de- velopment; country ill which any ! changes in established institutions ] desired by the majority can be obtain i Cd by peaceful and orderly means; a country blessed by an increasingly ! greater and more widely distributed prosperity than any other nation has i ever enjoyed"
 Now l am not quoting all this to ] slyly boost the United Americans while l intend to say lot more about them l am just using them as a nice ! opportunity to say lot of things that l have been thinking for a long time, And that leads me to quote out III good big letters the motto from the button and shield of the organiza- tiOl:
 ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE
 PRICE OF LIBERTY"
 Now you know that is just what is the matter with the whole world night now-nobody anywhere has ] been eternally vigilant to preserve liberty or any of the other things that make life good and worth living Every last one of us has been so busy making a living that we havn't -aken time to REALLY LIVE. And then we get sudden jolt and wake ID and find that our liberty to go OF
 making a living and minding our own l business has been all muddled up by l lot of incOmpetents whom we should have fired out long ago. And that $ why we need the United Americans I-because we have to be 'poked up to look out for the liberties we use every day but never miss till they are gone.
 I'm thinking about all this today because l happen to be d member of the Dewey board for the Road Bond election-and we of the Board are not being worked to death by voters. A good many persons in the com munity who ought to be here voting are at home planting corn or making ! garden or finishing up the last blow ing.
 NOW all those things are good to do and need to be done but this election IS more important than any or all of them. It is the one big chance for everybody to say positive ly what they think about the bond issue and say it so that they will be listened to.
 Not everybody wants the bonds and this very day is their time to say so-and not do any complaining after ward And those who do want the 1 bonds cannot expect their desire to count for anything unless they are willing to come to the polls and say so on one of those long sheets of brown paper that the board has not been very busy numbering today.
 The very first thing that we Americans brag about is that we have a government where everybody has a chance to express his opinion by the ballot-but we don't say d word about how careless we arc in not using the ballot unless something as big as a presidential election is on to stir Us up 10 action.
 And really it is lot more import ant 10 Us who live in Yayapai county as to whether the road bonds go or not or we have good county officers than whether one man or another is in the far-away White House.
 We everyday people will have to go on with our everyday work no mat ter who is presidcnt-but mattcrs nearer home may make a good deal of difference 10 our spirits and pocket books at the end of the year
 For this year especially we need to be wide awake in the use of those means by which our liberties may be guarded, for this year brings the selection of new officers in which each one of us is, or should be, deeply in- terested.
 While | have been sitting here as