The Imperial press., 1905-02-25
AN OPEN LETTER TO
 PRESIDENT HEBER
In Which lie Is Asked Some Interest
 ing Questions
MIR. A. II. HEBER,
 Los Angeles, Cal.

to the people of the Imperial Valley
 published in last weeks issue of the
 Imperial Standard, you make some
 statements regarding which 1 would
 like to ask a question or two. You say
 it has been decided that the law will
 not permit of government ownership
 for the Imperial Valley: When and by
 whom has it been SC decided? If there
 is at present no law by which the gov
 ernment could acquire the right to carry water from the Colorado river to
 the settlers in Imperial Valley, is it
 impossible for such law to be made?
 las it been so decided? If so, when,
 and by whom? You say "Let us now
 forgive and forget the past" What is
 there to forgive, and who is to do the
 forgiving? Is it the people to forgive you, or you to forgive the people? What
 harm have the people done2 Is it wrong
 to trust in the promises and assurances of others? When you promised the peo- pie plenty of water did they commit great sin by believing you? When they rose early and worked hard pre- pairing the land tor water that never came, were they very wicked? Is it a great crime for them to pay you their hard earned money for something they nevHr got, and should they be sent to state prison because you sold them something you never owned? Are these the things you ask them to forget? Does anybody forget faster than a fool? Is it not by remembering the past that people grow less foolish? Is this the reason you wish them to for get the past? If this is pot the reason will you be good enough, Mir. Heber, to say what is the reason? "Combine our efforts:" What part in the combination has been wanting heretofore, and have not the peol le titled the soil and sowed the seed, bOrdered and ditched the land and spread the water when it came? What more must they do; must they also bring the water? If they bring the water what is your part in the com bina- tion? Is it your part to take the money? You say "TheOrists have sown the wind for our reaping, and we have harvested a whirlwind. We have lost one year of prosperity" Who are the theorists and what are the theories and when and where did they "sow the Wind?' Have you forgotten your own advertising literature? Honestly, Mir. Heber, have you never been taken for the original AeOlus; or does that distinction belong to Mir. Emerson? And what is the pros perity we have lost? Does prosperity consist in the selling of water stock? Or does water itself have something to do with it?
 ''Neighbor has been arrayed against neighbor and friend against friend, all for the aggrandisement of the Reca- nation Service, who had axes to grind and chestnuts to pull out of the fire. The Service has used your influence, ostensibly to benefit you, but in reality to feather their own nests and build up for themselves an autocracy."
 When did the neighbors have the row and how did the Reclamation Service kick it up; and what axes did they grind in so doing? How could they feather their nests by raising a row among the people? Were the people not feather less, for had you not plucked them? And what did the Reclamation Service want with the chestnuts? Were the people not already stuffed full? You say, "You have paid the c. D, Co.," Did you not mean to say, "YOu have i've times paid?"
 Lastly you say, 'Let peace prevail and prosperity will follow" Does pros perity always accompany peace? Is not Death perfect peace? Was that the condition you were trying to bring to ,he people? And speaking financially.