Imperial Valley press., 1912-01-05
|LOS ANGELES TR|BUNES ATTENTION
GIVEN TO THE EVERGREEN VALLEY

veloping it's resources in spite of Los
Angeles.
can illustration, one of the little
things that grinds on the people o1
! Imperial Valley every day, is the an
nouncement that your chamber oi
commerce is compiling a list of the
! products of Southern California fol
the last year, and in the list there is
not one of the products of Imperial
Valley, which already reach $5,000,000
year and which soon will reach a
total equal to the agricultural and
horticultural resources Of all the re-
mainder of Southern California COM
bined, for more than half of the irri.
g3,ed land in Southern California to-
day is in Imperial county.
with this valley now spending 3d.
100000 a year in Los Angeles, even
your commercial organizations barely
admit its existence. With the people
here spending S500,000 a year for va
cations in and near Los Angeles, our
real estate interests are eternally
knocking the valley
This is not said in malice. It is
simply an utterance of the truth, be-
cause we are determined to break
through the shell of Los Angeles and
compel the city, for it's own good as
well as ours, to see the truth.
The day may come when we can
look upon the attitude of your city
with Indifference, for by gradual stag
es feeling of alliance with San Diego
is growing up with the avowed inten-
tion of diverting the trade of this val
ley to that city on the completion OF the
railroad now being built, and at the
rate wealth is being created in the
valley in two or three years it will
have become strong enough financial
ly to be Indifferent to Los Angeles.
This is said with full realization
that in it's overconfidence Los Angeles
forgets that new avenues of trade
have in all time operated to disconcert
those who believed themselves all
powerful.
'The impression might be gained
from some source that what Imperial
Valley desires is a species of char
ity, but it asks nothing of the kind.
What it wants is people-people OF
moderate means-just the kind of peo-
pie who reach Los Angeles annually
by the tens of thousands.
THE fact is recognized here that for
an eastern farmer to land in Los An
geleS in search of new home is al
most guarantee that he will never
see Imperial Valley. Your people by
the thousand, knowing nothing of this
valley, not dreaming of the millions
of value that have been created here
or the greater millions to come, with
false conceptions of the climate, will
so knock this section that he will be
diverted elsewhere.
"If Los Angeles has one stupendous
interest that looks to the making Of
it into one of the worlds great COM
mercail cities, it is the reclamation OF
this valley and the country along the
Colorado and it's tributaries and the
building up of strong commercial
bonds with this region.
But for ten years your city-y0ur
commercial bodies, most CT your
banks, all your real estate Interest
| and the overwhelming majority 0!
your people--have apparently been dc
termined that this should not be.
! Il am trying to open the eyes oI
your people--to compel them 20 Sc
when they prefer to be blind, and
declare without reserve that Il To-
! Angeles cannct be made to see tia
its commercial destiny rests on Jhcsc
reclaimed deserts the new rcut3G o
trade will pass by your city and j.
will lose that prestige it now pos
sesses and which is menaced by tn,
city's own -sufliciency and pro
vincialism.
"E. F. HOWE
Editor Imperial Valley Frc8
Eel Centro, Cal"