Imperial Valley press., 1937-06-18
THE POWER FIGHT MOVES
INTO a NEW ARENA

The Nevada-California Electric cor
poration has vindicated the people who
voted eight to one last Wednesday to
approve PWA and REA contracts, and
in SO doing turned down the company's
se-called cooperative offer. There is no
other way to view the injunction suit
in the District of Columbia Supreme
Court than as an admission that the COM
pAry's offer was made in the interests
Of the company, not of the people.
s. A lot was said during the campaign
about good faith" 1t seems that the
campaign and the subsequent injunction
suit demonstrated a startling lack of
noble Intentions.
- In the first place. if there had been
an abundance of good faith, the power
company would have made its coopera-
tive offer more than IL hours before
news was received here that Washington
had approved PWA and REA contracts.
In the second place, if the mythical good
faith had held over, the power company
would sit down quietly with the Imperial
Irrigation District and attempt to work
out some solution to problem that OBJ
viously, needs lot of working out.
Instead, before the voters had even
been given chance to express their
ed an injunction suit. The complaint
was already in Washington, ready for
filing in a court which is noted for
granting temporary injunctions in such
Gases. The minute the election results
were flashed to Washington, agents of
the power company rushed into court to
file their suit.
u that good faith?
n. L Al
power company pursues the tactics
which has brought it into such unpopu-
larity in the irrigation district. The only
agency to blame for the company's plight
is the company itself. Directed from
afar, the. tactics it has followed have
created bitterness against the company,
rather than friendship for it. BY con-
: Gnlfhg along the path it has elected to
follow, the company is only encouraging
the. eventual loss of all of its business
in,Imperial Valley.
j This fight is not of the peoples MAX
ing We have merely done our best to
protect ourselves, and we shall continue
to do So. Every new proof that the fight
is being forced upon us merely strength
ems our determination that there shall
besof1ly one result:
- complete victory Tor the people.
!: IF the power company were wise, it
would abandon obstructonist tactics. 1t
would quit fighting for delays, know
ing that time is coming when it's fight
will be lost 1t would, instead, hold out
the hand of friendship. 1t would attempt
to overcome the bitterness that already
exists by itself becoming associated with,
not against, the interests of the people.
Only through such program of
friendship can the power company ever
hope to retain any of the business it
enjoys at present in Imperial Valley.
The. other way, the constant grudging
retreat, the desperate stand over every
inch of ground lost, the slow backing
up towards inevitable defeat, will only
bring to electric consumers in this terri
tory grim determination to forsake the
power company at the earliest possible
moment.
If there is to be business fight be-
tween two power distributing agencies,
the company and the district, then the
company is taking the best possible
means to lay the groundwork for its own
defeat.
;,h San Franciscans never need fear get
ting lost, with Identification by bridge
work what it is today.
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