Imperial Valley press., 1910-07-23
President Roosevelt's message advis-

WOrkS on the C0lOradO and warning that body that failure to make such appropriation would be equivalent to acquiescence in total abandonment of all attempts to reclaim desert land in the Southwest and destruction of the government work at Laguna dam. Clearly President Roosevelt regarded control of the Colorado a government job pure and simple, and had Congress given heed to his advice and taken up the work of extending the Harri- man levee, the break into the Abejos could have been prevented by the expenditure of tenth of the amount now required to repair 1t. It seemed to the people of the valley to be the governments business to repair at public expense the damage resulting from its own negligence of a public duty plainly pointed out and vigo- rously urged.
 Also I ventured to call attention to the legal fiction that the Colorado is a navigable stream under the juris- diction of the War Department, and to the physical fact that it is niot navigable in its present course, and pointed out that the only way to re- store it to even a plausible semblance of navigability would be to return it to it's old bed and hold it there with levee.
 The response to that was that the War Department had no authority to do work on the river in Mexico and actually made no effort to maintain navigability of the Colorado. I could only point out that as matter of fact the War Department exercised authority and jurisdiction and would not permit the people of the valley to drive pile or dump a rock into the river lest the purely mythical navigation be obstructed.
 I do not think the Presidents views of the matter were affected materially by the discussion, but I do think the presentation and explanation of maps and engineers data convinced him of the desirability of early consuma- tion of work on the river. He read to us letters and orders already is- sued, showing that preliminary steps had been taken promptly. He had in structed Gen. Marshall, of the Army Engineers, to select a chief engineer, and had confirmed Gen. Marshall's selection of J. A. Ockerson, of St. Louis, an engineer of the Mississippi River Commission. The machinery of the State Department had been set in motion to open negotiations with Mexico, and the legal questions in volved had been referred to the At torney Generals staff.
 The President requested Col Hola- bird to proceed to Washington to con- fer with Assistant Attorney General Lawler concerning the proposed ap- portionment of cost, the creation of a board of arbitrators and a river com mission and other details, and issued instructions to engineer Ockerson to have a survey of the proposed line of levee made immediately. Col. Hola- bird leaves tonight for Washington and will go over the matter thorough ly and in detail with MT. Lawler, whose recommendations presumably will have considerable weight with the President in final determination of questions involved in the. plan pro- posed at the conference.
 There was but little red-tape to be unwound in getting an audience with President Taft. Secretary Norton notified us of the date and hour of the appointment, and we reported on time at the office maintained in the town of Beverly. At the hour set, an auto mobile was sent in from Burgess Point, and in company with two other men having appointments with the President, we were driven through the shaded streets of Beverly to the Pres ident's summer residence, commo- dious house in beautiful park by the seaside No armed guards, no alert sleuths of the secret service, were in evidence on the grounds, although a keen-eyed, vigorous young man, who seemed to have charge of the move ments of conveyances and carefully sized up the visitors, doubtless was on the alert and prepared to protect the President from intruders.