Imperial Valley press., 1912-02-16

resources or the region they lnhabt.
Four sources of sustenance contrib
ute to the support of these city people:
Commerce, agriculture, manufactures
and mining.
To be a commercial city requires
more than to be a gateway through
which commodities pass. Such a city
must be a point of distribution, and
to be such it must have density of pop
ulaton in tributary country. Imperial
valley, with 225,0OO acres now irri-
gated, can support 100000 to 100000
people i'll comfort, with only the dens-
ity of the Redlands and Riverside sec
tiOns, and when it has reached the in
tensive cultivation of those older irri-
dred million dollars worth ofLcom-
modities and buy as much, for it's area
is twenty times as great as Redlands
and Riverside combined. This valley,
therefore, must be The chief basis Of
tho commerce of Los Angeles if it
is 10 become a great commercial city.
1t may be we'll TO note here the
fact that While five million dollars
might provide your city with FIVE more
beautiful skyscrapers, an equal amount
used in this valley would plant here
five thousand families who for all time
would be patrons Of your supply
houses, hotels and summer resorts.
That is why the surest way to build
Los Angeles is to build Imperial val
ley.
Before Imperial valley began to take
on population in 1901, Southern Cali
fornia was deficient in all the staple
products of the SOIL and now, eleven
years from absolute desert, this valley
is producing great part of the food
consumed by all Southern California,
and its agricultural resources are ex-
banding more rapidly than the popula-
ton it feeds
The manufacturing industries of
your city, rapidly as they have eY-
panded, find two limitations in the
scant population within reach and in
the lack of raw materials. The de-
velOpment of Imperial valley implies
increased demand for the products Of
your factories, and at the same time 1t
is producing new raw materials to
broaden the scope of your manufaC-
lures. An illustration of this is the
shipment from El Centro of many car
loads of cotton seed oil now being used
in Los Angeles in the manufacture Of
soap. Aside from this, the valley viii
furnish food products which can be
made to extend the lines now manu-
Iactured in your city. But chief of all
in manufacturing possibilities is the
coming production here of long staple
cotton and it's use on the coast in
making the higher grades OF products
OF the loom. That is why the surest
way to build Los Angeles is to build
Imperial valley.
Thus it is that in commerce, in food
supply and in manufactures, Imperial
valley makes possible the city OF 9
million people of which you dream
and which we would not deny you
But this implies cooperation between
the people of Los Angeles and the peo-
pie of Imperial valley; it does not
imply that the benefits OF this valley
are to fall into the lap Of Los Angeles
without the people Of Los Angeles do
ing their part in the cooperative move
ment.
You will recall the history OF Bag
dad, its commercial importance aud its
decline. You will remember the dom
nance OF the Phoenicians and later the
regency in trade of Venice and still
later the commanding position OF the
I.eagued Cities of Holland each great
in its day, but now small factors in
The worlds commerce because Of Il
shifting Of the avenues OF trade
Bagdad and Phoenicia and Venice
and the Leagued Cities retained their
prestige in turn until it had reached the
maximum of possibilities, but Los Ang.
eles today has trade with this region
which does not reach per cent Of It's
possibilities and now, just as this com
merce is becoming an important factor,
new avenue of trade is being opened
which will put this valley and all
Southern Arizona a hundred mie&
nearer to another seaport town
viii Los Angeles retain this trlde
by in some way presenting attractions
which will more than offset the gre9tey
distance?
1t is true that bonds of friendship
and of social relationship are factora
which affect trade, but the people Of
the valley are trying to get q state
highway 10 the mountains to afford
an outlet for them with their taImt,
for summer vacations. In lieu Of his.
YOU are trying TO force through an
automobile road that does not 20 to
the mountains and which is useless 10
the farmers, the entire interest bur
den OF which will fall ON the Deopl.
f, -