After going over the past of Yorba Linda and noting how it has solved its problems, we venture to take a peek into the future.

We find the view rather heavily clouded. Our nation is troubled. We are engaged in a long and costly war, the views of the right and wrong of which, have divided us as a people. We are waking up to the fact that a fairly large segment of our people are poor and underprivileged and have become militant about it. There is violent racism, fed and encouraged by enemies abroad. We are obsessed with the extremely expensive venture to place an American citizen on the moon. Crime throughout the nation increases daily. The air we breath becomes more and more polluted. Our national debt is staggering in its immensity.

And Yorba Linda? Ah! How serene was our valley! How lovely our quiet little village, peopled with the best folk in the world, not too rich, not too poor . . . friendly, thoughtful, kind and most of us, now living here, think it still is the greatest place of all in which to live.

We are now a city and our city council members are attacking our problems with sincerity. We are divided as to the decisions on land use. Shall we invite industry to come in and give us a broader tax base with which to buy the beauties and luxuries of [178] a quiet, residential city of elegance or shall we keep this a strictly middle class residential area?

Knowing the fiber of Yorba Lindans of the past and the present, I would predict that the central part of the city, (old-town) will become more and more industrialized, . . . that eventually service will resume on a large scale on the Pacific Electric tracks already here and that products of this industrialism will move into Los Angeles quietly and free of air pollutants, by a restored electric line, and that the frustrated commuters who suffer through snail's pace driving on the smog-ridden traffic crowded freeways will greatly appreciate commuting on this restored service. The outlying areas to the north and east will develop into more and more costly estate type dwellings.

I predict that there will be a significant spiritual regeneration, already begun in America, that will help us resolve our problems as no other measure could. This will not be quite like such revivals of the past, but rather on a more understanding basis forced upon us by the blood, sweat and tears bath we are now involved in worldwise. We shall have learned much from our errors. We shall live together in our city with a complete spectrum of skin color. We shall fill our churches on Sundays and we shall recognize the right of everyone to choose his own church, synagogue or mosque without threat of reprisal for not attending the one of our choice.

We shall continue to strive for a better understanding of our neighbor and his problems and withhold our censure, providing he obeys the laws of the land. We shall give an honest day's work for the wage we are paid and we shall sleep peacefully at night in this "Land of Gracious Living." [179]