Imperial Valley press., 1910-05-28

Imperial Valley IS Safeguarded against invasion by the flood waters of the Colorado river this year by southwest from the end of the levee built by the Southern Pacific when the break of the river was closed in 1907. This work has been done in five weeks by Manager w. K. Bowker, of the C-M. ranch, under a contract with Receiver Holabird that allowed fifty days for completion of the le- wee.
 Quick work was necessary because the start was delayed by the efforts of Boaz Duncan and other creditors of the California Development Com pany to force settlement of their claims by obstructing the Receiver and creating situation so menacing to the irrigation system of the valley that the Southern Pacific or the set tiers would have to submit to their extortionate demands or compromise with them in order to save the val ley. It was the intention of the Re- ceiver and the engineers to begin the work in March, and the Superior Court was about to authorize the Re- ceiver to issue the necessary certi- ficates, when the Supreme Court in- terfered with writ of prohibition on March 25 on application of Boaz Duncan, restraining Judge Cole from taking any action and directing him to show cause on April Il why the appointment of a receiver should not be set aside.
 That placed the valley between the devil and the deep blue sea for fair. Judge Wellborn had issued an in junction restraining the c. D. Co. from letting any water run from the river into Salton Sea, and that injunction, so interpreted as to permit neces- sary use of water in the valley, Z had been made permanent. Then the {. Supreme Court, in the abundance of its ignorance, enjoined the receiver of the c. D. Co., from doing anything to prevent the whole Colorado from pouring through New River into Sal ton Sea- One court came near de- stroying the canals by drying them up, and the other proposed to let a flood wash them away and ruin the valley. With the receiver it was a case of I'll be damned if do, and I'll be damned if I don't. And both in- functions were issued ostensibly to protect the interests of the Salt Com pany, whose works have been under eighty feet of water for the past four years.
 But the Supreme Court was en- frightened promptly and persuaded to advance the hearing, and on April 4 the writ of prohibition was dismissed. The receiver was authorized by Judge Cole to proceed with the work, the contract was closed and Bowker's forces began operations on April 12. 4 Duncan, the Salt Company and other gobstructive litigants made one more | tattempt at hold-up by moving for change of venue to get the control of the canal system out of Imperial County and into the hands of some Judge conveniently ignorant of condi- tions. The hold-up failed and the ca nal system was saved from destruc- tion.
 This is the season of floods in the Colorado The river begins to rise in April overfows the delta lands in Mexico in May and reaches It's highest stage in June. The river left its old channel last year and took a new course to the gulf, pouring It's whole volume through old drainage channels in the delta and flooding great area of forest below the line. There is low divide" between the delta lands and the basin of the lm- perial Valley. and the flood, If un- obstructed, would pour over that slight elevation and How northward to Sal