Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-01
OWENS RIVER
ENTERPRISE
Pasadena Considers lt One of the
Greatest Engineering Under
takings Of the Age
From the Pasadena star.

Ihe owens river water enterprise Is
easily one of the greatest engineering
Undertakings of the age. Only an ex-
traordinary need would move a single
city to inaugurate such mammoth
project involving such vast expense.
Few cities in this land of pluck and re-
sources would so promptly and so
pluckily essay the task as Los Angeles
mas done That community has won
the admiration of the whole country bv
lts independent. self confident initia-
tive i'm the premises.
scarcely second to the interest Los
Angeles has in bringing this tremen-
uous body of water from the heart of
the Sierras is the interest of other
CUES and rural communities surround
ing the greater city. From the first
announcement the movement was
hailed az sealing beyond doubt the
luture growth and development of this
Whole section It Is an enterprise more
tnan merely local to Los Angeles. The
whole county fully expects to share in
the supply which will be FAR beyond
the needs of the growing larger city.
for congress to restrict the supply to
domestic uses In Los Angeles alone
would work an unspeakable Injustice
and hardship to tens of thousands of
people in this section just as much en-
Titled to share in this water as is Los
Angeles If they pay for it. TO single
out one community to the exclusion of
another in such a case would be rank
discrimination.
Los Angeles should he free to ar
range with agriculturists to sell water
for irrigation, and to furnish surround
ing municipalities a domestic supply
1lnOn EI1ph pt1rp1u httcft,a@e
may be agreed upon. Los Angeles also
should not be stripped of the right to
use the power generated by this water
for manufacturing, which offers great
opportunities.
As this is a Southern California en-
terprise, any community and any indi-
vidual or coterie in any community in
the region which will directly benefit
by this project are attacking their own
interests when they assail this under
taking or attempt to Illustrate or delay
its legitimate consummation Even
though no other community than Los
Angeles was to directly benefit, still it
would be to the general material inter-
est of this whole section. Whatever
makes Los Angeles grow and thrive is
good for the whole territory tributary
to the metropolis. That city's prosper
ity is bound to be reflected in every
lHulilClDdIly anu country
district.
1t is unfortunate for Los Angeles that
the better business sentiment of that
community was evidently misrepre-
sented in the comparatively few men
who undertook to railroad through the
legislature a disingenuous consolidation
scheme in which it was attempted to
use the denial of participa ton in this
water supply as a club to force other
municipalities in the county to surren-
der their municipal integrity and be-
come absorbed in a greater Los An
geles. Fortunately for Pasadena and
the municipalities concerned the yelled
intent was laid bare and the scheme
was foiled. Consolidation is a closed
incident until such time as the munich
palities involved voluntarily seek to
join themselves to Los Angeles and lose
their individuality.
Pasadena strenuously fought the con-
solidation scheme. But Pasadena at no
time has interposed a word or action
calculated in the least to retard or dis
courage the great water movement. On
the contrary, the people of this COM
munity, individually and collectively,
have enthusiastically indorsed the
project. Every civic body has publicly
expressed sympathy with the enterprise
and pledged cooperation with Los An
geles. In the heat of the controversy
over consolidation, although fiouted and
all but insulted by some of the misrep-
reSentatiVes of Los Angeles the citi-
zens of Pasadena never for a moment
lost sight of the real issue in contention
nor dill they at any time falter in 10y
atty to the enterprise or the city that is
projecting it. There may have been
temptation to retaliate, but not a citi-
zen so narrow minded here who raised
his voice to strike blow against this
great enterprise. 1t seems necessary to
emphasize this point, as some newspa-
pers outside Los Angeles county are