Arizona republican., 1921-04-13
By Col. J. H. McClintock

The influence of the press supou the development of Arizona is some thlng that cannot be measured with yard stick. Indeed, I know of no way in which it can be measured, un- less 1t be by the quality of the cit izenship that has grown up under it's mlnistrations. For, you know, there may be a measure of quality as of squantity. newspaper, mark you, usually expresses the opinions most acceptable to it's readers. Sometimes It IS rabid in incendiary. Sometimes It is dull and didactic. But in each case you will find that it has a class oI readers well in sympathy with it. IT. this be found not so, it will be found also that the journal is of short life.
 Some minimizing ones are prone to dwell upon the development of the land caused by the advent of the railroads. This is not exactly the right way of putting it. Rather let us say that the country develops the railroad, for the railroad would not come into district that had no SUD- port for it. The same rule may be applied to the press The newspaper is considered great civilizer and a mighty engine of development But think for a moment how speedy
 
 stuck out on desert. with neither people nor financial support. In it there would be Similitude to an or ator addressing a prairie dog village on the value of municipal incorpora- tion. Sad as it is to admit, there had to be provision for the cost of white paper and of material food before the editor came. however new was the camp into which he dropped.
 Years ago. Major DOran 0re4 of the oldest of pioneers, warmly assured me that the press had been one of the most potent. possibly the most potent of the factors that had worked for the civic uplift of Arizona. I be- ieye he was right. And yet it was not because all the editors were up- filters or reformers. Some of them had had bad habits and a few un- doubtedly had quit their former homes by request. But the bulk of the editors of the formative period of Arizona undoubtedly were men of even more than average standing in their communities. Often these ed itors got to consider gambling, blas- phemy, drunkenness and riotous con- duct as merely attributes to the true western spirit not to be censured They considered and properly. l think, that the vices enumerated were not nearly as bad as lying, cheating and social and commercial vi1lainies common in the older states. But never could find one of these frontier papers advocating anything editorial ly on other than high moral grounds. Whether the editor stood on high moral plane or not, he knew the way tofplease the American citizen in any state Is to cry aloud for civic and individual correctness Newspapers don't advocate the practice of vice, unless, mayhap, they have first cloalSed it as a virtue. You know that no melodrama could live were the villain not foiled for keeps" in the last act. Step by step, the news papers of the Southwest thus have kept just a bit ahead of the grow ing tide of morality and good order and they are still keeping up the good work. Arizona is now a good ly land, but the newspapers are at least as good as their communities In many cases just shade better
 In ancient times a temple was. be- lieved best favored by the gods when a slave had been built up alive in the fSundation wall. The same sym solism has endured through the ages. There has to be a sacrifice at the bottom of every good-usually an un- thanked and 'unappreciated sacrifice. The idea conveyed in the ancient ad- age. ..The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." has been ex- pressed in many ways in many lands and has been true in all The pio- neers of the Southwest. fighting back the Indian and the desert, did serv- lee little understood today and less valued than it should be, even by the pioneers who survive There was nothing romantic about these pio- ne,ers, in their own esteem, and they .ssfE nothing sentimental or heroic in the life they were compelled to lead They had chosen the life they pest loved, far from the galilng con yentionalities of older communities Despite the commonly accepted idea very few of them had left other states for the community's good. Manli- ness was their predominating char acteristic and in that word honesty generosity, bravery, self-sacrifice ano hardness all were mere attributes Every last one of them had main tained his keen interest in the affairs of the nation. Hence it was that the chroniclers of the early days came close behind the prospector, ever ahead of the missionary, unless yot Insist on remembering Padre kino ol Padre Garces.
 These early pencil pushers wer' blase over almost anything that dit not concern the dSSuIeo great lutOi of their own poor little adobe bull camp. They were fiercely jealous O every upstart of a town that mlgh lay claim to the dignity of com petition. Death was only incidenta and the expected thing. Little di' It matter that it came by violence. l the late lamented had had a squar deal in the circumstances attendin his demise, all was well and the maj who killed him was given the righ hand of fellowship. Let the takini off have been attended by any sus nicion of assassination and the camp official sycamore speedily bore g huree. And thea the local ncwSl a per printed half a colum about all. filling up the balance of the eel umn with a string of jokes clippe from the Burlington Hawkeye. Thcr didn't seem to be much home grow bumor in those days out here in Ari Zona.
 Sunpose. nowadays. there shoul' descend a band of Indians upon a Arizona ranch, staying and destroy ing Such an occurrence would
 TAIye Of EirSf