Imperial Valley press., 1908-06-20
YELLOW YARN OF STARVING BOYS
 REFUTED BUT NOT CORRECTED
Fl Centro Chamber of Commerce Makes Statement of the Facts Which Los Angeles Papers Refused to Print LoaferS and Agiator8 Responsible for Misrepresentation of Conditions in Imperial Valley

c. NJ. Dunnick the insurance man who is charged, jointly with E. J.. Phelan, with conducting an unlicensed employment agency in Los Angeles, returned to El Centro this week, the hearing of the case having been set for June P. Mir. Dunnick brought with him twenty-two college boys and found places for all of them immedi- ately. He is not an employment agent nor is Phelan, but it appears probable that Phelan violated the provisions of a Los Angeles city ordinance by ac- cepting fees without having taken out a license The Los Angeles police are after employment agencies which have been preying on the unemployed, and they seem to have got Phelan mix ed up with the crowd and to have as sumed that Dunnick is in the business because he is Phelans friend.
 There was no foundation in fact for the Los Angeles Times story that hundreds of boys were starving in Imperial county and unable to find em- ployment Every boy sent down here by Phelan was taken care of, and all are at work and satisfied with their treatment. The complaining witness in Los Angeles, Mr Dunnick says, was a boy who had not started for the valley. The police learned that he had a certificate and forced him to give it to them and to sign a com plaint. He thought he had to do what ever the police told him to do, but he has told Dunnick, acording to that gentleman's $ statement, that he will not be a witness against Phelan and has no cause of complaint.
 |. w. W's New Organ.
 The story of starvation and decep- ton appears to have been spread in Los Angeles by men who tried to or ganize the boys into branch of the I. w. w. and induce them to hold up the melon growers by striking in the middle of the season. The boys would have nothing to do with them and the agitators were run out of El CentrO after they had instigated an assault upon Japanese pickers. That The Times should be fooled by l. W. w. loafers and induced to print false and injurious statements about conditions in Imperial Valley is a grotesque thing. The Times, used as tool by T ,1, Io1 is the limit of absurdity
 A party of eigner5-Germans and Hungarians-was sent down here by Phelan on an order from H. B. Pear son, but got off at Imperial instead of coming through to El Centro by train. They drove down from Imperial in the night and arrived here with'a full complement of demijohns and iags. At the packing shed they appropriated blankets and beds belonging to col lege boys and had trouble with the boys, and a few of them left for Los Angeles the next day, refusing places offered to them and roaring loudly about the way they had been treated. Those fellows have been telling their tales of woe to the police and The Times.
 There are unemployed men at BraW- ley. Some of them are boys who dis regarded Phelan's instructions and got off at Brawley instead of coming to El Centro some are lads seeking jobs on their own hook, and a great many are l. w. w. malcontents whom the Brawley growers refuse to employ on any conditions. Doubtless these men have been writing letters to Los Angeles telling of the awful hardships of labor on the desert.
 Truth Rejected.
 Citizens of Imperial county are not concerned with the personal tribula- tions of MT, Phelan, who may have violated an ordinance by taking fees for his alleged philanthropic services, hut they are surprised and incensed