Imperial Valley press., 1913-02-17
oS ANGELES AWAKENING

- About year ago the Press be
gan a campaign designed to compel the
business interests of Los Angeles to
country and the need that existed for
cooperation between their city ana
other communities of the Southwest.
In the columns of this journal and or
Los Angeles newspapers ana personally
before deleg cation of those Los Ange-
les business men, The writer has urged
this subject with strenuosity that by
a few persons has been construed as
unfriendly criticism Of the metropolis,
but by the best informed has been
accepted in the friendly but frank spirit
in which the truth was spoken.
Now comes the report that the
larger business interests OF Los Angeles
are combining to organize an industrial
bureau which contemplates the de-
velopment Of divers lines of industry
in the city. This does not of necessity
imply that the city intends to take the
Southwest in general within its pur-
view, but by inference such will prove
TO be the case. The work which Is to
be taken in hand must concern itself
with questions of raw material ana OF
markets for commodities produced. and
these questions seem certain to cause
the supporters of the movement to
give thought to the larger field when
makes Los Angeles as commerclal
and industrial center a possibility.
Without ever having shown the
instincts of a commercial city, Los
Angeles. has possibilities which are
not inferior to those of any other city
i'll America. The mountains open TO
that city to make ii natura! gateway.
.l.. "a
capability Of the worker. The supplies
of raw material for manufactures; the
fuel and the power needed for large
industrial activity. are at hand.
Commercial Los Angeles. so far as
it has being. is an accident. 1t exists
not because of the will of the citizens
to build commerce, but because inc
Los Angeles can become If the people
of the city decide to make the utmost
of their commercial and industrial pos
shilites no man can now measure.
The personnel of the new organlza-
ton includes such men as Percy ii.
CLARK, Carl Z. McStay, StOddard Jess,
r. W. Burnham, F. w. Braun, II. Jevne,
Tie name of each of these men IS
already identified with big public un-
dertakings in Los Angeles. They are
representative of the progressive ele-
ment in the commercial activities OF
Los Angeles, and the things they can
do, aided by their neighbors, if they
will take the time to do them, can
be made of immense effect in the
building OF the Southwest.
When this subject has been up be-
fore, the Press has undertaken to force
home the idea that the surest way TO
build Los Angeles is ITO build Imperial
valley" That expression was used to
cover larger idea than the words
conveyed. 1t implied for the people of
Los Angeles to get into touch with the
interior, to recognize the existence of
a New Southwest not bounded by its
municipal lines. to become a factor in
the great work of developing the latent
forces Of this great arid empire that
includes four or five states in the
Southwest, of which Los Angeles is
the metropolis. with the possibility of
becoming the capital of its industry
and its commerce.
If the new organization contemplates
such a field, its founding is the most
portentous event in the industrial his
tory of the city.