Imperial Valley press., 1910-05-07
BATTLE IN DESERT
 WON BY PIONEERS Eastern Writer Tells of Sum- mer Visit to Submarine
 Empire
Finds cheerfuIIy lndomitable Ameri- cans Winning Fight With Most Stub. born Conditions Ever Faced by Frontiersmen and Has no Doubt of Imperial Valleys Future.

In Golfers Weekly of May z, Ar thur Ruhl tells the story of the long fight between the pioneers of Imperial Valley and the Colorado river and his story is substantially correct, although he does fall into the trifling error of describing this region as a desert of sage brush," which it, never was.
 MT. Ruhl begins with the cantaloupe fizzle of 1908, which the valley has for gotten, and continues:
 q have somewhat ungraciously rubbed the bloom off an iridescent dream, not merely because too many iridescent dreams are sailing up from the far western bubble blowers, but because one must understand some of the difficulties and disappointments these pioneers have met really to ap- preciate the importance of the battle they are fighting and winning For a battlefield this baking below -the-s valley is, with all it's richness, and must be for some time to come, be- fore one of the most stubborn and treacherous combinations of natural conditions and man made circumstan- ces that American pioneers have ever faced is beaten into obedience and the country made, in the finer and more final sense, livable.
 And the men who have fought and are fighting there are just as truly conquering a territory as if they had marched out against an armed enemy with bands playing and colors flying. More truly, I should say, for theirs is the bravery hardest to find and most difficult to maintain. Any healthy man would gladly have ridden into the jaws of death with the Light Brigade. It isn't easy to find those who will fight the heat that wits and wears, lone Illness and Encouragement, the wind that blows a half grown crop out of the ground, the treachery of markets that throw away in a day the fruits of months of persistent, almost af- fectionate work
 The writer tells of the closing of the break of the Colorado, and then of his visit to the valley last summer.
 Tt was sun-up when we pulled into Fl Centro. Already the heat wrapped itself about one and burned. The ground-a fine silt without even pebble to break it-and soaked now with one of the very occasional rains, sent up steamy hothouse breath. The little town was almost deserted. Ev- erybody who could get away had gone to the mountains or the seashore. You can take sleeper at night and be swimming in the Pacific before break fast the next morning. Thither go the wives and children-it is like "the hills" in Kipling's stories.
 Yet none of those who stayed be- hind complained. had breakfast with a crowd of them at one of the little restaurants where everything, from oysters to ruddy duck, was on the bill of fare, but the usually tactful weren't supposed to order anything beyond breakfast food, chops, or bacon and eggs The place was cheerful with tanned young men in negligee shirts open at the neck, most of whom had job in town in addition to ranch on the outskirts.
 They were the garrison, going through the manual of arms, so to speak, until cool weather came and life really began. And more good humored lot of young Americans you could scarcely have found in any com fortable camp or idle club, It is men like these who build up deserts and conquer the wild land The other sort fall away, or never have the nerve to come.
 And hope shall not be misun- derstood If l have put aside the boost ers talk and the bright bubbles blown by the railroad folders to tell little of the valleys other side Of It's fu- ture-whatever special line growth may take-there is, should say, no doubt. They have the soil, the sun and water. and plenty of good Ameri- cans One rather doubts the possi-