Imperial Valley press., 1908-02-29
INJUNCTION LIFTED
 IN THE NICK OF TIME
Attempt to Handle River Like Garden Hose Came Near Causing Temporary ReverSiOn to Desert Conditions, Intake Was Sitting Up Rapidly When Gates Were ReOpened,

Sull uuuOuUtCull WdS uAOu6ht huVhN by the disclosure of facts which had not been presented effectively. to the court during trial of the salt works case.
 Attorneys had argued that public in- terests would be injured by such an order as the salt company sought, but attorneys do not always really believe what they say. and judges know them and their ways so well that their argu- ments are not always accepted as gos- pei truth. Had the water users of Inn perial Valley been awake and keenly watchful of their own interests, they would have intervened in the salt works case and presented evidence to show what results would follow interference with the flow of water in the canals. The court would have lis tened to engineers and irrigators, and given to their sworn testimony degree of credence and weight not accorded to the special pleading of attorneys doing their best to win points for clients.
 Facts ForcibIy Presented.
 Evidently the court did not know that an injunction intended to keep water out of Salton Sea would, if strictly applied, deprive Imperial Val ley of light and power immediately and in short time abort the entire irrigation system and cut off water supply for all uses from an entire county. When the El Centro Cham Der of Commerce, voicing the conster nation and indignation of the com annuity, put the facts into state ment that may have been more ener getic than polite, the earnestness of the protest doubtless made an impress sion that the arguments of lawyers could not make.
 While the court could not admit a statement of that nature as evidence or take it into formal consideration as a reason for modifying an order, the who professed to be shocked by the awful irregularity of it, were aroused to the seriousness of the ques- ton, and proceeded to place before the court i'll prescribed form the facts that had been let loose like bullets from shrapnel shell by the offending resolutions.
 Until presentation of evidence was stopped by discovery of a technical line of retreat, the court was acquir ing information that had not been before, and the case of I'm l perial Valley against private interests was being heard on its merits. Wit nesses were sworn and testified to the damage that had been caused by the | closing of the power canal, and affi- | davits were presented and read by both sides. The court was not only told of the injury already inflicted up- on the residents of Imperial Valley towns by paralysis of public utilities and cessation of industry dependent upon electric power, but witnesses were present and ready to tell of the still greater imminent public calamity which all irrigators and many others in the valley recognized but hesitated to publish to the world so long as there was any hope of averting it.
 Back to Desert.
 Engineer Hermann, of the c. D, Co.,, had made affidavit and was ready to go upoIf the stand and testify that if, the injunction should be kept in force another ten days, the headworks and main canals would be choked with silt and the whole Imperial Val ley would be without water.
 Attorneys for the salt company, seeking to retain in their hands the means of forcing the c. D. Co. to satisfy the demands of their client tried to minimize the effect of evi- dence of that character, and argued that the technical rights of their client were paramount to the industries men aced. They insisted on rigid appl- cation of the injunction, regardless