Imperial Valley press., 1929-05-04
DOWD'S LETTER OBJECTS TO
POSITION TAKEN BY PRESS
Imperial, Calf,
MAY LIST, 1929.

Imperial Valley Press.
El Centre California.
Dear Sir:
In your issue of April - there
, was an editorial entitled. Distric,
Power Project Opposed" in which
YOU have taken stand against the
poWcr development as proposed by
the Imperial Irrigation District of
ficialS and approved as feasible by
the state bond commission.
You state that. latter giving
the matter considerable thought,
and studying it from all angles
presented YOU find that YOU can
not support the project. From your
article il is quite apparent, to one
familiar with the facts, that there
are many "angJcs to which YOU
failed to give consideration.
Gou state You are acting in what
You believe TO he the best interest
Of the "pcoplc.' This being the
case. why did ynu not allow the en-
g;rocrS representing the "pcoplc"
TO discuss the project with vou be
fore taking u definite stand2 You
nave laid great stress on the social
ed ewing Report Who aualizcd
this rcuort for you' Certainly. Il
lou worc acting in the best inter
cSiS of tn" "pooplc' you would
haze asked the district engineers
for Il statement on This report.
In referring TO l.. :. Wing. you
state, " q competent and disintcr-
ostcd engineer, s"ut by the cali
fornia Farm bureau Federation. To
mako . survey of Imperial Valley :
power needs This is absolutely
untrue, rs tho California Farm
Bureau Federation had nothing t.
do with tho Investigation. Mr..
Wing WAS instructed to make the
report hv tho man for wlorl he
works, i. i. deuel.. head Of thc law
and utilities department ot tic
. state federation, without the
knowi'dg" or IN" consent Of TIN
directors Of the federation.
j. j. Deuel., man who is known
. throughout the length and breadth
of our state as one being bitterly OPP
posed 70 public ownership in amy
form. j, j, Deuel., who for the past
wear has been quietly undermining
tho proposed project even before. as
h" has admitted, hr knew anything
about il. j. j. Deuel., who with his
Engineer Wing has appeared for
private power companies against
publicly owned power utilities.
Vet rou say q disintcrested cngi-
ncer, and at another point in your
editorial YOU state that Wing haS
20 axe to grind Can You point
10 one instance i'm the state OF Cali,
forria where either Mr.. Deuel. or
Mr.. Wing has assisted municipal
utility or has assisted a group Of
! farmers distributing their own pow.
! cr' repeat that the California
Farm Bureau Federation neither
sanctioned nor approved the Wing
! report and II was printed under cir
r1mStancoS that are very much open
70 suspicion. Why did certain parties
here in the Imperial Valley receive
copies Of the report and why was il
published in an opposition news
paper before even being submitted
10 the local farm bureau And YET
you lay so much stress on this repor.
as being unbiased politically sound
tcchnjcally-' etc.
It is true, rs YOU state, that tho
law and utilities department of tn"
California Farm Bureau Federation
is employed to represent the agri-
cultural interests but ask the Modes
to and Turlock farmers, who ar"
successfully developing and dis,
tributing their own power in compc-
tition with private power companies.
if the law and utilities department
ever assisted them in their fight.
You state that your stand ''is
prompted primarily by the belief
that the proposed plan is too costly
to Dc undertaken and would i'm
pose an additional burden on the al
ready heavily laden tax payers. -