Imperial Valley press., 1908-10-17
STOCKHOLDERS OF NUMBER ONE ASKED TO VOTE ON INCREASE
 OF CAPITAL.
ARGUMENT FOR INCREASE
President Aplin Reeites Reasons For Making Early Provision For Dry Lands Within Present Boundaries of the District and Enabling Settlers to Secure Patents.

On Saturday, October 31, the stock
 holders of Imperial Water Company
 No. 1 will meet to vote on a proposed
 increase of capital stock. A two-thirds
 affirmative vote is necessary to ap
 proval. D. G. Aplin, president of the
 company, has issued letter to the
 stockholders calling attention to points
 in favor of the issue. He says, in
 part:
 within the boundaries of Imperial
 Water Co. No. 1, there are, at least,
 35,O0O acres without water rights, but
 all embraced within an irrigation sys- tenn almost completed. At the annual
 meeting last January a stock issue was proposed which would have pro- vided for 10000 acres of this land, but the provision for water right to be applied was simply a spreading of our water already contracted for to larger area than it now covers.
 Tt appears that the Government in tends to issue patents only upon such lands as are provided with a per manent and sufficient water right To rent water from one piece of land to another or to move it from one piece of land to another, is an evasion of these requirements of the Government and would probably result in the loss of land. It is quite evident to irriga- tion lawyers that no corporation or company can surround by it's ditches large areas of land and condemn these areas to remain desert lands.
 With sufficient water in the Colo rado river to irrigate all of the dry lands in the Imperial Valley, it would seem the part of wisdom to secure water first for these areas where wat CT can be most easily applied. It has been suggested that certain areas of land lying outside of the present irri- gated districts can be supplied with water rights as price ranging from $30 to $50 per acre. In the face of these figures the price of $25 per acre, at which figure our lands can be sup piled, seems very reasonable.
 "The failure of this stock issue will leave the question of supplying our dry land still unsolved and there are several reasons for wishing it may be solved. The important one of these is that the parties holding this dry land will be required to make proof upon their lands and will be required by the Government to secure water rights before patents may be granted The second reason Is that the sooner a contract Is made and these rights secured by stock issue, the sooner we will be free from the probability of some other district of land secur- Ing prior right to the water. The third reason is found in the desira- bility of bringing under cultivation more of the land in the eastern part of our district. The objection that the increase in the capital stock will make Imperial Water Go. No. 1 too large, is poor one because the in- creasing of the capital stock will not increase the size of the district.
 We will be called upon to supply this dry land and if we do not do so it is only matter of a few years when we will probably be forced to do so. When such litigation is brought to bear, some one else will dictate the terms and 1t is question: able whether Imperial Water Go. No. will receive anywhere near the bene- it that she may now derive; in the | second place we will be working a on many stockholders and others who desire water rights and must obtain them to hold their lands n the third place we will derive di- rect benefit from the decrease dn charges and some direct