Imperial Valley press., 1912-02-26
Los ANGELES TRIBUNE
SPEAKS PLAINLY OF VALLEY
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want to do real developing. / know
can make money down there out of
my poultry. You needn't look at my
white hair that way, young man. There
is more life and getup left in this old
body than there is in half a dozen of
the youngsters hanging around this
town, afraid to go out and do real
days work.
The old lady opened her commodi-
Gus handbag and brought out map.
Right here, just a few minutes from
the railroad station, is my land" She
indicated the spot with her pencil.
Its all cleared, ditched and fenced
built little shack on the place, and
I'm ready to make some money out of
it, if 1 could get a start. Turkeys
and fancy poultry pay big money. l
know it. A woman just a few forties
from mine made more than $4,000 last
year, mostly out of turkeys, but can't
get the little capital l need, not in
this town"
She snorted contemptuous1y.
"They asked me if I didn't want a
companion! if / wasn't lonely down
there! Yes, | want a companion, a
big Swede girl who can get up at 4
in the hornfng, hold up the stove
pipe with one hand and do a weeks
washing with the other. If she knows
poultry, that's the kind of companion
want. But you people up here don't
know what we want and need down
there. You're too busy making profits
by selling land to help people who
want to make a living by farming
land"
During the last two years, since the
valley swan out of the flood of it's null
titudinous troubles, reached shore and
started to dry its clothes in the warm,
kindly sun of prosperity, Los Angeles
capital has lost it's timidity and gone
into Imperial valley Down in Calex-
leo a real estate man pulled out Of
his desk a large, heavy bundle Of
documents. Every one of these reL'
resents a loan on improved farms made
by Los Angeles banks in this vicinity"
he explained. There is no longer any
trouble i'll obtaining money on an i'm
proved ranch. Most Of the money is
coming from Los Angeles, but we could
get it almost anywhere.
Inability to obtain Los Angeles
money is no longer worrying the Impe-
rialites. They are offering good secur-
ity; they are paying good interest, and
that combination will procure loans
for them anywhere. Their resentment
these days springs from a different
source of irritation.
There are too many knockers in
Los Angeles" exclaimed an Ell Centre
man. He slowed down the machine
in order to make himself better under
stood. Perhaps it isn't so much open,
right-out knocking as it is the insidi-
Gus process of inSinuation by unfavora-
BILE comparison, AS I size it up, the
Los Angeles land operators don't come
into the Imperial valley because there
isn't large enough speculative mar
gin of profit for them here.
There never were any big grants
or enormous undeveloped ranches in
the valley. From the beginning 800
acres was the individual limit Most
of the land is now fully improved,
and of the improved land little is for
sale at less than 500 an acre. That
price is based upon what the land will
produce and does produce, even with
out intensive cultivation. But the price
is too high and the tracts are too small
to appeal to the big Los Angeles op-
orators. SO they go to San Francisco's
territory, into the San Joaquin valley,
where undevelOped land can be had at
$50 an acre, supplied with water by
pumping, and sold at big profit on a
smaller investment than down here"
Stopping the machine, the Ell Cen
tro man waved his arm in a compre-
hensive gesture over barley and al
fa Ifa folds fi1lino tho flat c0untrV claar
TO the horizon.
This isn't a field for the promoter
and speculator," he said This coun.
yeloped. There are hundreds of bar
gains that can be snapped up and
turned over rapidly by the man on the
ground, but essentially this is the field
of the agent who works on a COM
mission basis, and commissions don't
appeal to the big operators. That's
why they are going into the San Joa.
Quin valley and help boost San Fran
cisco's game.
Mind you, we have no fault to find
with their investments. They have
a perfect right TO go where they can
get the biggest returns on their money.
Their operations are nothing to us.
We can get along with them, but
it is our business when they run down
this valley in order to get people into
San FranciscO'S territory. We don't
ask them to boost our game. All we
want is square deal, and we feel
that we are not getting it from the
Los Angeles dealers Ii they don't
want to come down here and get their