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ImrapeJrial Valley Press
Official Newspaper ef Imperial County.
7t7nU3HRn RVKRY SATURDAY.
TZ^r '. Allen Kelly
B^ln^Vejjjnafler .■•■•♦ i_- Lewla Havcrmale
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Knieifd ns second -clnss mattrr March 3 1906. at the postomce at El j
CVntro. California, under the art of Congress of March 3. 1579. |
GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING.
The board of army engineers that has been inspecting and
investigating the work of the reclamation service recommends
apportionment of $1,200,000 for completion of the Yuma project,
the cost of which already has exceeded the estimates enormously.
The board reports that the actual cost of completed work has al
most invariably exceeded the original estimates, and in the case
of some structures has been two or three times as large, and ex
plains that this increase "was partly due to a general increase in
the cost of labor and materials, partly to under-estimates and an
insufficient allowance for contingencies, and partly to the neces
sity of doing more work than was originally contemplated."
That is a very mild way of saying that the engineers who
designed the work were incompetent or inexcusably negligent.
There is no excuse for under-estimating by millions the cost of
building dams, but there is a simple explanation, and that is that
many of the engineers, to whom the designing of reclamation
work has been entrusted, have been inexperienced graduates of
technical schools, stuffed to the neck with theory and utterly ig
norant of practical construction. ' They could make pretty plans,
but they have had to learn at public expense whatever they know
of real engineering, and some of them don't know much yet.
The Laguna Dam is an example of amateur engineering.
The contractors, who undertook to build the dam, lost about half
a million before the job was half done because the engineers had
failed to ascertain the quality and condition of the rock at the dam
site and had assumed that it was all suitable for use, -when in fact
much- of the rock was unfit, and half the work of quarrying- was
expended upon removal of waste. The contractors stood the loss
and threw up the job, and it will cost more than the original esti
mate to complete the project, which already has absorbed twice
as much money as the "yellow-leg" engineers allowed for the fin
ished work.
The work now in progress on the Colorado river is another
a. w
case in point. Government engineers were assigned to the job five
months ago, and not yet have they made an approximately ac
curate estimate of the quantity of material to be moved or the ulti
mate cost of the woric. 'When they advertised for &ds they had
-no precise data from which to figure quantities and were not even
sure of the .location of the line of the levee. The only estimate
of co3t they had wa3 a rough guess, made at their solicitation by
the engineer of the California Development Company from his
general knowledge of the ground and of the character of the work
required.
- ' The government engineers had not made adequate survey?
when they let contracts, and they have changed the line since the
b:*d3 were opened. They don't know yet what the work will cost,
but they have spent so much in getting ready to do something that
they are quite sure a million will not be enough. Railroad en
gineers of the western type would have had the work bompleted
by this time, and at a cost of about half the appropriation.
It is reported that the chief engineer regards the Colorado
river as a "joke" and his assignment to the work of controlling
it as a "sir/ months' rest cure." If that is his conception of the
situation, he is likely to find the river a grim jester before he is
done with it. But it is hardly credible that the chief engineer
is so complacently blind to what is before him, even though he has
not been over the line of his work. The paper responsible for the
report is so densely ignorant as to place the discharge of the
Colorado at "four or five second feet." The discharge in June,
1909, was 150,000 second feet, and it has been known to discharge
50,000 second feet, or 1,350,000,000 gallons an hour, in January.
NEW PHASES OF WATER QUESTION.
The five attorneys engaged by the mutual water companies
'to dissect the Bridgford Act, study the law governing the conduct
of public utility corporations and present legal opinions concern
ing the feasibility of organizing an irrigation district or a stock
company to operate the canal system in Imperial valley, have had
several meetings and are supposed to have arrived at some ,sort
of agreement at their last meeting in Los Angeles, but no report
has been made public yet. It is probable, however, that the law
yers will report that the legal difficulties to be overcome make it
inadvisable to adopt any plan of organization until the irrigation
district law shall have been amended and international compli
cations shall have been solved by treaty with Mexico. Control
of the canal in Mexico is the key to the whole situation.
There are indications of a radical change in the Southern Pa
• cific's views of the situation, and it is intimated that the rail
road is not so anxious as it has been to get rid of the system and
go out of the irrigation business. It is understood that the rail
road people are now disposed to clear up the title to the CD. Co.,
take charge of the whole works and advance the money required
to' put the canal system into good condition and extend it to new
land to the north and east. There is no question that the Southern
Pacific could build the new canals and structures more promptly
and economically than the settlers could under any ,sort of or
ganization, and it is vitally important that the extensions be made
us soon as possible and that a canal of adequate capacity be con
structed in place of the Alamo channel in order that the right to
all the water required for the entire valley may be secured before
other projects on the Colorado are consummated.
• Whether or not it would be best for the valley to leave the
matter in the hands of the Southern Pacific until the canal system
is perfected depends upon the disposition of the railroad people
to take hold in good faith and work out the problem to the best
interests of all concerned. The railroad has control of the prop.
erty of the C. D. Co. and the Mexican company, and can do about as
it pleases so long as it pleases to do nothing plainly illegal or in
jurious to the valley. If it pleases to complete the canal system
and put it into good operating condition, rather than to dump the
wreck of the C. D. Co. upon the settlers and leave them to work
out the problem slowly and through tribulation, the Southern Pa
cific will serve its own interests as well as public interests, and.
when the system is completed, the people of the county will be
able and ready to take it off the railroad's hands on fair terms.
Whatever the final disposition of the present canal property
may be, a right of way for canals through Mexico, secured by
treaty and not depending upon revocable concessions to Mexican
corporations, is necessary to the valley.
GRAFT BY ANOTHER NAME.
An effort will be made to pass a ship subsidy bill in this ses
sion of Congress, and there is no question that the stand-patters
and drudges of "the interests" will' vote for it, as it is approved
by the President, who seems to think that giving money to a few
owners of steamships will restore the American merchant marine
to a flourishing condition. How a subsidy to ship-owners will en
courage American boys to become seamen, the advocates of this
species of graft do not explain. They babble about "restoring
the flag to the seas" just as the tariff grafters keep up their bun
combe about "protection to American labor."
That the tariff and a ship subsidy are the same in principle
is naively admitted by one of the subsidy-boosting newspapers,
owned by a steamship owner, which says: • N
"When a subsidy is called by another name and so disguised
that its identity is not readily discovered, it finds general favor.
For example, the protective tariff will be found, in the final an
alysis, to be virtually a subsidy. Yet some of the people who are
most enthusiastic advocates of protection on land are especially
hostile to protection on the sea. In the latter they detect the sub
sidy which easily escapes notice in the economic tangle which the
protective tariff presents to many persons."
But the people are detecting the subsidy to trusts in the
trust-made tariff. They are kicking the drudges of "big business"
out of Congress, and. they will not tolerate more grafting under
the guise of a ship subsidy.
The best thing President Taft has done since he was elected
is leaving Elihu R66t out of his list of appointees to the Su
preme Bench. ';.
VIBITORS INSPECT VALLEY.
A party of Washington capitalists
composed of Messrs. W. E. and J. W.
Harbert,- J. P. Smith, Robert Fred
lund and Miles Fulk, who are spending
the winter in Pasadena, came to Im
perial valley, by way of ' San Diego,
in their motor car, the 'first of this
week, and have been the guests of the
Hartson Land Company while making
a general inspection of Imperial val
ley ranches. They may make invest
ments here.
DINNER FOR PROF. CARR.
During the meeting of the Imperial
County Teachers' lustitute in Los An
geles, in conjunction with the South
ern California Teachers' Association,
a dinner was given in honor of Prof.
J. E. Car, the retiring Superintendent
of Schools of Imperial cSu'nty,' by
teachers of the county. Prof. Carr
was presented with a handsome watch
fob as a token of appreciation of his
services as superintendent.
! Davis Bros. \
111 .- \ ..... j
$ LEADING DRUGGISTS . j
! El Centro and Holtville f
j\.,. ;•, ' <■■■ %
Never before has the Valley Department Store been so well prepared to meet your
||||||s |w%^,} i~M§ wants in Footwear as at present. Durability, comfort and style are the points our buyer
bears in mind in making selections for this store. We have built up a patronage from all
W^^M^^^^Mi parts of Imperial Valley— and our Shoe Department has been one of the strong factors.
mm M^^^^mi Your attention is called to these specials:
Ih***l. I'rlcc ■ ■ *•■••• .. l*P*^ • V /y?!^A v'V
VL lp ''vfl^^oHl^ Woman's Patent Button, Kit/, model, tip ll ?"$2.s0 f^^m^^^^^^
Valley Department Store, El Centro
PATENTB ISSUED.
The following patents to Imperial
Valley lands have been issued by the
United States Land office:
To Emma Morgan, tract 78-16-14.
To B. G. Webster, tract 67-16-16>
To G. W. Belden, tract 88-16-16.
To F. K. Weeks, tract, part 105-15-
18.
To W. B. Brooks, tract 102-14-13 and
14.
To Minerva Gardner, tract 60-13-14.
To Earl C. Pound, tract 65-13-13 and
14.
To Earl C. Pound, tract 109-i3-13.
To May Conley, tract 78-16-IC.
To H. J. Happman, tract 183-15-13.
To H. R. Fagan, tract 125-13-13.
To F. M. Wells, tract 97-13-13.
To D. B. Scott, tract 81-14-13.
To L. J*. Sargent, tract 77-15-I C. 'f •
* To Thos. Beach, tract 268-15 and
IC-13 and 14.
To Wru. Cuddeback, tract 270-15 and
16-13. . '
To True Vencill, tract 115%-16-14.
fc] THE COMPLETENESS
Ui . OF OUR RECORDS
pj Wn liavo ono Index that leads with
|3| unfnlllnß nccurncy to nvery recorded
V-A transaction nffectlng the title of any
m| lot or parcel of Inml In this county.
|,?| It Is a dragnet which nothing can
p»| escape.
1-1 To get thin Information from the
fc ; "i public records nt the court-house
i>-jj would bo like hunting for a needlo
|| In a haystack.
I"! You could never know when your
Krj search was ended. ..'■.
fj t] Itoßldes this Index, we have all the
f J necessary modern helps to finding out
f}l4 things nbout the title — taxes, Judg-
r J ments, Hens, decrees, etc.
fM No need to go any further. Lot us
I>i help yon with your title troubles.
I 1 Our Guaranteed Unlimited Certlfl-
|fe| rates of Title absolutely furnishes
i)| Title Protection That Protects.
Nj PEOPLEB ABBTRACT & TRUBT CO.
ivSj of Imperial County.
p| W. B. MORTON, Mgr.
F 1 Office— El Centro, California.
Now that the Christmas shop- | §ms& I r — M^bftfe. l
ping and hustling is over, come M«^W/k /j \u000ffl|
in and let us show you through ]§Q IJ L3f /.l°™m||v
our samples for a nice, made-to- r^^^L \/f '/MM
order Suit or Overcoat, Don't ®j^^® A mm lfkj[
Cleaning and pressing a spec- MmMM . Im) $d*^~ '■
Get the habit trading here. |pf \jLjfy
PRESTON 5 ICARJNEYjiS
PALO VERDE VALLEY
AND BLYTHE RANCH
BEST REACHED'BY AUTOMOBILES OF
The Palo Verde Motor
Transit Company
From Glamis Station, on the
■ Southern Pacific Ry.
Leaving Glamis Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, 6:30 a. m.
Arriving Blythe Via Palo Verde, Runnells, Neighbors, 12 m.
Leaving Blythe Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays.
Arriving Glamis, 5 p.m.
Fares: To Palo Verde, $7.50 each way. Runnells, $3 each way.
Neighbors and Blythe, $10 one way, $18 rount trip.
' See Southern Pacific and Bouthern California Time Tables.
E. S. McARTHUR
R. N. HINCKLEY >
Address, Glamis, Cal. Proprietors
SatttrdAy, n«wni!*r HI, 1910.
