Imperial Valley press., 1912-11-11
~NN Los ANGELES
~ COMPREHEND 1T.

The Press has had occasion to speak
heretofore of the organization of
body in Los Angeles to promote the
appropriation by the government of
five million dollars a year for ten years
for the construction of works for i'm
pounding the water of the Colorado,
and doubt was expressed whether Los
Angeles realized the magnitude of the
task to which it was setting its hama
and whether the many prominent men
whose names were appended to the
boards and committees were prepared
to become more than ornamental ad-
iuncts to the project.
The movement has been started un-
der the auspices of the Los Angeles
Chamber of Commerce, and the men
whose names are affixed to the organ
iZation in print are very prominent.
They are the names of men who in
great part have been prominent for
many years in all the functions of the
excellent body they represent. They
have helped to entertain leading fra
ternitieS. educators. literati, statesmen
and musicians, and in all places they
have acquitted themselves with credit.
But here is something different from
any task TO which Los Angeles ever
set its hand. 1t is the greatest engi-
neering enterprise which man ever
undertook. BY the side of it the irri
CATION engineering enterprises of the
Ganges and the Nile are dwarfed and
the building of the Panama canal be
comes of second Importance. The only
man in the list of officers who has
borne a prominent part as a builder
of empire is w. F. Holt.
This is not to speak lightly Of the
body OF M an whose names are men
toned. Without exception in their in
dividual pursuits they have been big
men. There are big bankers, like Stod.
dard Jess, and big horticulturists, like
]. Q. Story, and many other men who
have been and are at the head OF
large affairs. But the mere fact that
these men are so prominent in otheA
lines raises the question whether they
are going to give to the new enterprise
the attention to detail its magnitude
calls for.
The work that has been outlined
does nothing less than contemplate the
reclamation Of at least a million addi-
Los Angeles, and this cannot but i'm :
Ply adding several millions of people
to the population of southern Califor-
MA, but the Press scrutinizes the news
papers of Los Angeles carefully and il.
vain to get some idea of the details of
lhe plan, or at least a program for for
mulating the details II looks in vain
for editorial comment on the greatest
project. by far. in its ultimate effects
on human welfare, that the city has
ever undertaken, but there is no evil
dence that the editors have read the
single columns of news of the project
III their own papers.
The Press would like to believe that
Los Angeles has taken up this work far
greater than that of the building of
the Owens river aqueduct, with full
comprehension of its magnitude and
with determination to rise to the i'm I
portance of the undertaking. But the
Press feels that it is necessary that
something be said that will give that
city a comprehension of what it is
undertaking to do, for there is as yet
no evidence that the people of the me
trOpolis know what a gigantic task
they have before them.
When the Owens river project was
presented whole pages were appropri-
ately given to the details of the work.
With this task, greater as an engineer
ing work and in its effect on the south
west, no Los Angeles newspaper has
yet devoted more than a column
"