Imperial Valley press., 1937-05-30
THE NEV-CAL PURPOSE
BECOMES APPARENT

President A, B. West of the Nevada
California Electric corporation admitted
IN effect Friday night that his compa-
ny's sole purpose between now and
June 10 is to defeat the PWA and REA
contracts offered to voters of the Impe-
leal Irrigation District for approval.
The method taken to bring about this
hoped-for defeat overlooks vital obiec-
tions to the Nev-Cal offer.
When the corporation offered to pay
the district an estimated 35,0O0,OO
over 40 years for All American canal
power, there were five principal objec-
tions, any one of which made it impos-
sible seriously to consider the offer. They
were:
l. 1t is impossible to amend the PWA
contract as proposed by the power COM
pany, so all PWA funds could be used in
construction of power plants on the can
al. 1t is equally impossible to start at
the beginning with new PWA applica-
tlon, with any hope that it would be ap-
proved.
2. The power company cannot legally
guarantee us low electric rates under any
So-called cooperative contract.
3. The power company would not be
buying our power under the proposed
agreement-we would be buying our own
power and paying the power company
large commission for distributing ii
to US.
4. The big margin of profit depended
upon to retire irrigation district indebt-
edness would go to the private power
company under the proposed agreement.
1t is the margin of profit we want and
need. We do not want merely enough
to retire only the canal obligations, as
they fall due.
5. Any contract entered into by the
power company is subject to change
from time to time by the state railroad
commission, making it impossible to bind
the power company to definite terms on
rates to producer or consumer.
O.
Mr. Vests alternative offer of Friday
night, by which his company would agree
to finance construction of power plants
on the All American canal, removes on
ly one of the objections. 1t leaves four
to be considered, and any of them singly
is enough to justify immediate and un-
conditional rejection of the power conf
pany offer in its entirety.
Under the power company's supplement
tai offer, the people are asked to vote
against government financing contracts,
but to accept similar financing from the
power company. Even methods of re-
payment are somewhat similar in the
government and corporation proposals.
The people would repay the government
out of revenue from the power system.
They would repay the power company
in credits on their power bills. There
isn't much difference. except that the
people would pay the power company
a profit into its private treasury in ad-
dition to paying for the power plants
and the power itself.
Considering for the moment that ali
other things are equal in the two offers
(private and government), there still
remain four principal objections to the
private company's offer which cannot
be made to the government offer.
When we find logical objections to
the business offer, and cannot find cor
responding objections to another offer,
there is only one thing to do Accept
the offer to which we cannot logically
object!
AS clear thinking, level headed peO-
pie, the public of Imperial Valley can be
depended upon to reach a reasonable
conclusion in the matter of All Ameri-
can canal power. 1t seems to US that
such conclusion is this:
The only sensible thing we can do is
approve PWA and REA contracts on
June 16.