Imperial Valley press., 1931-01-31
lHETZEL TELLS OF
FIGHT WACED FOR
VALLEYS ADVANCE

WILL i y HUvhlVVE
IRA ATEN, What does that name
bring to your mind? To my mind
it brings a picture of man who
has spent much of his time dur
ing the past quarter of a century
in an attempt to build up and i'm
prove the Imperial Valley. Through
out this time he has been respected
and admired by all who were for
tunate enough to know him. 1t is
to this type of man that the fu-
ture business men and women of
Imperial Valley can safely trust
their interests.
Mr.. Aten came here in the early
days to make his home and took a
very active part, together with 9TH
er pioneers, in building up our val
ley, developing the land and be-
coming a successful farmer. Does
it not seem reasonable at this time,
when the future of our valley
means so much to the younger gen.
Grafton who will have to take up
the business of further development
of our community where the old
pioneers left off, to carry it on, in
turn, for future generations, that
we should keep the men of the
caliber of Ira Aten on the job. 1t is
the men like Aten who made Cali
fornia what it is today. We, who
are living here now and enjoying
the better things of life that were
made possible by the early pioneers
who had visions of the future. must
not forget at this time that we
should carry on the ideals of our
predecessors.
For years we in Imperial Valley
have been fighting for the pro-
lection of our lands from the raw
ages of the great Colorado River
and the Boulder Dam and ALL
American Canal which seemed OF
the greatest Importance to us for
the future development of this
community. Ira Aten was in the
forefront always in this fight. Now,
let's just analyze the Boulder Dam
and All-American Canal project
Just what does this mean? 1t guar
antees the elimination of flood
menace; it assures us of permanent
water, which means that we will
not be menaced by drought. just
wonder if we would be willing to
trade places with the. people along
the Mississippi River, such as the
residents of Arkansas, who in the
past five years have had two great
floods and now are suffering from
a great drought that is drying up
all their crops, leaving their cattle
starving and making it very diff
cult for themselves to exc out an
existence.
Now, Just think what this project
of ours means to the future develop
ment of Imperial Valley. We are
assured of plenty of water, plenty
sunshine. What more can we ask
for? This Imperial Valley, to my
mind is destined to be the greatest
agricultural spot in the world. Ira
Aten has helped to make it so; he
will vigilantly strive to keep 1t SO,
if continued in office. believe
there is no other section Of the
United States that has the future
that we have. We are little bit
worried at this time by the finan-
cial situation, just as they are in
other places in the United States,
and yet in a great many OF the
European countries they are having
a still harder time. I believe that
we are about to enter into an era
of prosperity that cannot be
equaled any place in the world. !
mean by this, that when the Gov
ernment starts building the ALL
American Canal and spends be-
tween thirty and thirty-five mil
lion dollars in our Imperial Valley.
that all of us cannot help but reap
our share of the benefits. Ira Aten
stands for the immediate construc-
ton of that great waterway.
Speaking of the All-American
Canal, it is the only thing that is
going to make it possible for us to
avoid differences and difficulties
with Mexico. the thing that we
have been trying to do for years.
Only the other day Mexico cut our
revenue for water in Mexico fifty
per cent. Now what does that mean?
II means about three hundred
thousand dollars year less rev.
enue from the Mexican water users
and throws a greater burden upon
our own shoulders. So I say again,
this is no time to make any change
in our program. Mr.. Aten has had
eight years of experience as di-
rector of the Imperial Irrigation
District and has always been very
careful, prudent and conservative
as to expenses of the district. At
this time it would be very foolish
to put a new man in his place for
the reason that the new man would
have to learn the workings of the
District and it's board Of directors
before he would become an effii
cient director. The business Of the
Imperial Irrigation District is no
different than that Of any other
line of endeavor. If man goes
from one line of business into an
other, he must learn the new busi-
ness before he becomes efficient,
SO plead with you. people OF I'm
perial Valley, to go to the polls
next Wednesday and re-elect Ira
Aten as director of the Imperial
J,-r;Uatiop District