Imperial Valley press., 1914-08-03
Holabird's New Song
Of Undying Grief

Thus in the Los Angeles Times
saith Holabird:
at means ruin for our system; the
undoirg of the work of years." said
Colonel w. H. Holabird, receiver of
the California Development Company
yesterday, in discussing the state
railroad commissions decision that his
company is public utility and there
fore subject to the jurisdiction of that
body.
"It is a physical impossibility," he
continued, 'for us to serve more wa
ter than we are now serving. Any
more checks put in, any more later
ais, will reduce the velocity of the
flow, and the canals will at once COM
mence to silt up.
'In one year," he said impressive
ly, eff the main canals are tapped by
laterals one mile apart the whole sys-
TEN will go to rack and ruin 1t isi
a system patiently built up, syS
.-of scientific ,exactness for the.L-Ezs =
be performed, and any disarrangement
of the present canal and laterals sys-
tens means-well, no chain is stronger
than the weakest link"
Regarding possible appeal to the
courts, Colonel Holabird had nothing
to say.
81 can say nothing" he said, "un-
til my attorney, Mr.. Mathews, and
myself, have had time to carefully
digest the 31-page decision of the COM
mission and consider all sides of the
case"
1t is understood on good authority,
| however, that the case will ultimately
find its way into the courts on the
general premise that the system has
lever been "held out" as serving the
public, that it has never been "dedi-
Gated" to public use, and that the
constitutional and statutory provisions
of the state, applied to the system,
would amount to taking" of prop
erty, and that such application would
violate the Fourteenth amendment OF
the federal constitution regarding the
seizure of property without due pro-
cess of law.
A disturbing feature in the whole
case is the fact that the state su-
preme court in the Thayer case de-
cided that the development company is
not public utility. 1t even went fur
ther and set forth that such a view
of its activities would operate as a
clog in the way of equable and con-
tnued distribution of the water
Whether or not the state supreme
court will reverse this decision when
the case is carried to it again, on
the account of the development COM
pany VS.. the state railroad commits
sion, is an uncertain element.
"The commissions decision, if up
held" said Colonel Holabird will
place me in the disturbing and anoma-
lous position of a servant of two
courts-one telling me, as its busi-
ness agent, to preserve the present
status of the company, and the other
telling me to serve water to whoever
wants it. 1t is a fine comment on
our laws that man can be placed,
unwillingly, in this contradictory po-
sition."
An effort to get Colonel Holabird to
state the money value of the property
placed in jeopardy by the commissions
ruling was met with the responses:
mo one can ever approximate the
value of the property of the Califor-
MIA Development Company. The books
would not even show it. 1t is an in
tangible value that bears no relation
to original costs. 1t is a strategic
value. Take Hanlon's Heading, for in
stance 1t has a strategic value OF
= $1,000,000 or more, for it is the last
place on the river where there is rock