Imperial Valley press., 1941-09-29
NOW THEY RE
TALKING SENSE

TALKING SENSE
There Was shortage Of resolutions
and Il Surfelt of conversation IL last
weeks meeting Of tn Associated cham
bcrs of commerce Of Imperial Valley, Yet
when the All cleared up II WAS apparent
that the session was potentially enc ot
tire most productive IN many wears.
On thc "man bites dog theory. the
meeting was first class news. Here WAS
chamber ut commerce meeting n men
criticism OF the community stole the
show. Imagine, Chamber OF commerce
members telling what is wrong with The
valley instead of boastng about what Is
praiseWorthy. Unhrard Of But Get-
initcly constructive. nevertheless.
What is wrong with the valley. t4'
civic LEADERS agreed. is that il does moth
ing bat talk among its oWn residents
about things that ;trc prai>tWurthv here.
They We're one hundred per cent right
The reason Imperial Valley Is Not -
day a tourist resort eQualllnE Phoenix
Palm Springs and similar places is tina.
we've kept our good points pretty mueh
a secret from the rest Of the world.
The sand dunes and Salton sea az
points in discussion Both are nationally
known. But it is not through any effort
of ours that this IS SO. 1t Is simply be
cause they are unique enough to attract
national attention even without baI.N-
hoo Imagine how we'll known they would
be. and how many visitors these two Nat
ural wonders alone would attract. Il an
intelligent effort were made by the Val
ley to call them TO the attention OF the
rest of the world.
You cannot make any such effort with
out money to back it up. Imperial Val
ley will have to spend money II Il Is to
undertake any such widespread publicity
campaign as would be needed TO make
this over into wonderland for tourists.
Yet it is erroneous to say spend. It
would be better to say invest For it
would be an investment. and a wise one,
the result Of which would be TO bring
into the valley far more money than
would be expended on any publicity cam
paign.
But We'll never bring it mere by lip
service alone It takes something more
than that TO reach nationwide audience.
NEED is FOR A
CENTRAL AGENCY
For many months this column has ad-
vocated establishment Of a centralized,
well financed county agency to carry on
the lob Of publiciZing Imperial county.
There is plenty of precedent for such an
agency. publicly financed. Phoenix and
the other famous tourist areas Of Arizona
maintain agencies. often financed by q,
direct tax levy Los Angeles and San
Diego spend thousands Of dollars in tax
money annually to publiciZe their terri
tories-and get millions Of dollars worth
of return from their investment
AS was indicated al the associated
chambers meeting. the Imperial county
board Of trade is the logical choice for
an agency through which to control ok
pendture Of publicity dollars, and the
county's the logical source for such fin
ancing But the board Of trade cannot
function as long as is virtually penr.-
less. and under strict control by another
group = the board Of supervisors = the
chief interest Of which definitely Is not
in the business Of publcizing the county.
We can talk our lungs out her. At h"nle,
and nothing will ever come Of it. Action
alone will put Imperial Valley in Is
proper place as an ideal winter resort.
1t must be action reaching into the mid
west, where there are good, prosperous
farmers, and into the north and f@st,
where the potential tourist "cr"p l. N.g-
gcst.
As long a. we pas, the buck back and
forth between ourselves ZACH of ~ -aE=
ing. "ot the other fellow do tho 1"9.
well get absolutely noWherc.
It's time to get to work.