Imperial Valley press and the Imperial press., 1906-06-23
BUSINESS METHODS
Of the Imperial Pash. Dastardly but Unsuccessful Attempt of Two lm- pcriaI Business Firms to Ruin Prominent Valley Farmer.

In every country people run bills with the merchants more or less. The laborer or artisan gets goods on credit until the next pay day and in the coun- try the farmer pays when he harvests his crop and gets returns from its sale. So well is this programme established that every business man knows of it and conforms to it. As long as pay day hasn't arrived yet for the laborer or the farmer has not yet received re- turns from the sale of his crop, the merchant who sold the goods with the understanding that he was to wait for his pay till such time has no right to expect pay or to take any action to harass his customer
 This, however, is not the rule ob served by the Imperial business men, as the experience of at least one large farmer abundantly proves. The farm CT to whom we refer Is one of the larg est farmers in the Imperial Valley. his grain crop alone for the present season amounting to l2.OOO sacks or more. Like every large farmer he buys goods before harvest to be paid for when the returns from the sale of the crop are received In the course of his deal ings with the Imperial merchants he bought a combined harvester through the agency of one merchant and bill of goods from another. Both pur- chases were made on time and in both instances the sellers agreed to wait for their pay till returns were received from the sale of this grain crop. But right here was where Imperial business methods asserted themselves. h. stead of complying with their agree ments and doing as they promised, these Imperial business men conspired together to ruin this farmer. They saw that if the farmer could harvest his crop he would receive more than ten thousand dollars. while the total amount of their claims was hardly one tenth of that sum. Therefore, how to get their money and at the same time prevent the farmer from harvesting his crop was what these men set out to do. So the merchant with the store bill sent his attorney to San Diego and brought suit against the farmer. This was done without any demand having been made for the payment of the bill. So the suit was filed and he San De- go papers announced the suing of prominent Imperial Valley farmer by leading Imperial business firm and no doubt Its readers thought to them selves there Is another Imperial Valley farmer who can see his finish. With the attachment thus secured this Im- perial business firm not only levied up- on the grain the farmer had shipped to Los Angeles but also upon the farmers bank account as we'll, so as to be sure and tie up the receipts from the sale of his grain and render him unable to pay his bills. Then the implement dealer got busy and wired his principals that the farmer was going broke and that he must have authority to take his har- vester from him. As every farmer knows farm machinery is sold on con- tract and payments are made from time to time, the contract reading that the machinery remains the property of the company till it is finally paid for.
 In this case the farmer had paid more than $500 on the machine and onl1, ou,ad aho,,t QEO0 Tb;. +La ~.