Imperial Valley press., 1937-06-15
WHY THE PH1A AND REA
CONTRACTS SHOULD BE AppROVED

CONTRACTS SHOULD BE APPROVED
Wednesday is at hand-the dav we 90
into the polling places, take up two
pieces Of paper and a rubber stamp. and
express our personal opinion on federal
contracts which are offered to make it
possible for US to build our own HYDRO
electrlc power system on our own All
American canal for our own benefit.
There are many more reasons than
can be set down here for voting YES"
Oh each of the two contracts. For most
Il US, one reason should be sufficient
II is this!
We need control Of power from the
All American canal to repay the federal
government the money it loaned US to
build the canal. We have already agreed,
in contract which we ratified by a
five-to-one vote, to repay the cost of the
canal to the government. If we do not
make enough out of power sales to pay
our lnstallments to the government we
will be taxed for it. The only way we
can save ourselves from the unbearable
cost of increased taxes is the way we
have contemplated since the beginning.
That is development and distribution of
public power.
1t is true that there is another pro-
position before us. Those who advanced
the proposal declared it would pay for
the canal. There are many reasons, most
Of them fully reviewed during the last
few weeks, why the proposal is not a
good one If all the objections were
wiped away and the proposal became
III fact what the power company would
like TO have it appear, there would still
be one big reason why every one of us
should vote YES on the federal con-
tracts.
That reason is to be found in the doubt
surrounding legality of the power COM
pany proposal No one has yet deter
mined if the power company can be held
To its offer after the election is over.
And if the company can be held to the
offer, no one rightly knows whether the
plan might not be blocked by one lone
embittered stakeholder of the power
In other words, we have no guarantee
that we could accept the power com
pany offer if we wanted to.
Individually, we might waste a few
dollars now and then by gambling Col
lectively, we cannot afford to waste mill
lions of dollars of our own money by
gambling with fate in a game we know
very little about A mo" vote on federal
contracts would be gamble Of the
worst kind. A YES" vote is our only
safe move.
The federal contracts are before us.
There are no questioned clauses, no pos
sible barbs hidden in sweet words, no
chance that they will be changed. They
have been drawn up and approved in
Washington. We KNOW what the fed
eral government will do if we vote YES"
at the polling places We know what
we must do in return. 1t is comparatively
little
The power company offers US only
proposal There are many things in it
we seriously question. There are hooks
that would catch US in the pocketboOk.
But, most of all, we Do NOT KNOW
what the power company would do if we
vote mo. We do not know what the
company would require us to do, after
We had placed ourselves again at the
mercy of monopoly.
The wise man takes the path he knows,
when he wants to reach his destination.
It is only the simpleton who leaves the
beaten path for winding trail that, on
the face Of it, offers uncertain footing.
Likewise. we as voters would be unWise
to abandon a certainty for a doubtful
proposition. ,..z..
The smart thing to do is to vote YES"
on PWA and REA contracts.
oIIV- nIID xIYhU