Imperial (205 page)

Dr. Jennings: “Most of the inability to dispose of farm products . . .” and “We accept in theory and fact the principles of the Colorado River compact . . .”—Senate Committee on the Colorado River Basin (1925), pp. 51, 55 (statement of Jennings).

86 . Subdelineations: Lettucescapes (1922 -1975)

Epigraph: “The main reason we cannot read these early texts . . .”—Aruz, p. 13 (“Uruk and the Formation of the City”).

Episodes when San Luis Obispo sugar beets were the nation’s earliest—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXIV, no. 26 (June 30, 1905), p. 611 (“News of Country Life in the Golden West”).

Cantaloupe chart and remarks—Paul Foster reports (2007) (“Imperial Color Commentary”).

Group portrait of the Brawley Cantaloupe Growers’ Association, 1910—
Imperial County: The Big Picture
, p. 18.

“This is a lettuce hearing . . .”—California State Archives. Department of Food and Agriculture. Bureau of Marketing. Marketing-order files, Box 3. State of California, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Markets hearing on proposed marketing order for winter lettuce. Wednesday, December 17, 1958, beginning ten o’clock, a.m., El Centro, California. Page 120 (Reginald Knox).

“There were 12,000 acres planted to lettuce . . .”—Imperial County Agricultural Commission papers. Report from E. F. Waite, Horticultural Commissioner, to the Honorable Board of Supervisors of Imperial County, California; hand-dated 1911-22, perhaps by another hand, in upper lefthand corner; p. 2.

Lettuce news for 1924—Hunt, p. 462.

“Growers in the Imperial Valley are alarmed . . .”—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXV, no. 7, August 15, 1925, p. 140 (“Agricultural News Notes of the Pacific Coast”: “Southern California”).

News of Ed Miller—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXIV, no. 14, April 4, 1925, p. 416 (“Agricultural News Notes of the Pacific Coast”: “Southern California”).

The two contestants grapple eternally.—Farm prices are $1.30 per crate in 1934 and $1.35 in 1935 for Imperial Valley growers, $1.60 in 1934 and $1.20 in 1935 for Arizona growers, perhaps because the latter have increased lettuce acreage instead of decreasing it as Imperial did but who can say? Imperial’s in deep manure now, boys and girls! In 1936, Arizona decreases acreage, while Imperial increases it, so that the 1,950,000 crates produced in the valley in 1935 become 2,750,000 in 1936. Who will win that gamble? To find out, we must wait for 1937. The beginning of 1936 is marred by low consumption in the eastern United States combined with an overhigh quantity of Imperial Valley lettuce. In consequence, both Imperial and Arizona growers decide to withhold their crop from the market. In 1949 the total cash valuation of Imperial’s crops decreases from the previous year, due to a freeze and a general price decline, but in spite of the lukewarm returns, especially from truck crops, “the lettuce deal, due to seasonal conditions, was the exception,” the County Agriculture Commissioner consoles us. “Markets were steady and F.O.B. prices were a near high record from January to April when the season closed.” Imperial is truly America’s winter garden. Lettuce revenues increase 60% from 1951 to 1952.

Lettuce news, Imperial Valley and Arizona 1934-36—University of California,
Time Agricultural Outlooks
, no. 4 (March 1936): John B. Schneider and J. M. Thompson, “Truck Crops,” unnumbered p. 2, “Imperial Valley Lettuce.” Average yields in both the Imperial Valley and Arizona exceeded those of 1934, so total production, alas, almost equalled that of 1934.

Remarks of Mr. Bunn—California State Archives. Department of Food and Agriculture. Bureau of Marketing. Marketing-order files, Box 3. State of California, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Markets hearing on proposed marketing order for winter lettuce. Wednesday, December 17, 1958, beginning ten o’clock, a.m., El Centro, California, p. 395.

Crop tales for 1936 (including fn.)—California Board of Agriculture (1936), pp. 540-41.

Crop tales for 1938—California Board of Agriculture (1938), pp. 569, 716, 722 (last 2 refs. are for Imperial Valley lettuce), 723 (carrots), 724 (cantaloupes).

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754: “I have seen men wicked enough to weep for sorrow . . .”—Op. cit., p. 363 (Appendix).

Lettuce news for 1949—Imperial County Agricultural Commission papers. B. A. Harrigan, Agricultural Commissioner, annual report for 1949, p. 7. I asked Richard Brogan (interviewed in Calexico, April 2004) when lettuce became big in Imperial County, and he replied: “I don’t think it was a big thing until after the war”—in other words, until about this point in time.

Lettuce news 1951-52—Imperial County Agricultural Commission papers.

“A dollar and a quarter for the best” and marketing-order hearing in 1958—California State Archives. Department of Food and Agriculture. Bureau of Marketing. Marketing-order files, Box 3. State of California, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Markets hearing on proposed marketing order for winter lettuce. Wednesday, December 17, 1958, beginning ten o’clock, a.m., El Centro, California. Pp. 59, 87, 102, 383-85, 13-14, 185, 203, 70, 229, 56-57, 15, 18, 20, 25, 29-31, 76, 73, 83, 95-96, 99, 105, 107, 10, 110-11, 353, 362-63, 366, 379, 383, 407, 402, 420, 422-23.

87. The Nights of Lupe Vásquez (2003)

Epigraph: “. . . the highest honours within human reach . . .”—Veblen, p. 79
(The Theory of the Leisure Class).

PART SEVEN

CONTRADICTIONS

89 . Credit Will Be Restored (1929 -1939)

Epigraph: “Credit will be restored and business will hum again . . .”—Tout,
Silt
, p. 313.

Mexican migration to the United States achieves a peak, 1929—Paul S. Taylor,
Mexican Labor in the United States: Migration Statistics. IV
, p. 23.

More than fifty thousand railroad cars of produce went out of the Imperial Valley every year—Figure supplied by Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 252.

Imperial’s ranking among agricultural counties, 1919-29—Imperial Valley Directory (1939), p. 11, Chamber of Commerce statement. 1932 figures on unsold Imperial Valley produce—Watkins, p. 97.

Mr. Robert Hays: “The First Thirty Years of Imperial Valley’s existence . . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 410.

Footnote: José Clemente Orozco on the crash—Op. cit., pp. 135, 136.

Imperial County Assessor’s statistics and analysis, 1930-39—California State Board of Equalization (1949), p. 16.

57,701 carloads of Imperial Valley products in 1930—Imperial Valley Directory (1930), p. 12.

Otis P. Tout accordingly brings his own
First Thirty Years
to a reassuring close (p. 255): “Despite the stock crashes in New York, Imperial Valley continued to be the white spot on the western map of prosperity, never missing a month for more than two years straight.” In other words, it will take a year for the Great Depression to harm Imperial County. After that, tangible property weakens year by year right up to 1939. In 1949, when the county had enjoyed as large a share of the war boom as it was going to get, the Assessor concluded: “Imperial County has lost ground since 1934 in relation to the assessed value of the state as a whole” (California State Board of Equalization [1949], loc. cit. Imperial County’s percentage of all locally assessed tangible property values in California: 1929, 0.65%; 1933, 0.72%; 1947, 0.43%).

The photograph captioned “Calipatria 1927”—ICHSPM photograph, uncoded.

A photo from an album: UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Powell Studio album. Photo #1945.007:5 (“Sheriff’s sale of foreclosed farm”).

“Attorneys, Attention!”—Imperial Valley Directory (1930), inside frontispiece.

“Confidence in the continued growth of Imperial Valley’s wealth . . .”—Ibid., p. 10.

“Because of market conditions in 1934, the equivalent of 300,000 crates [of lettuce] were unharvested in the Imperial Valley.”—University of California,
Time Agricultural Outlooks
, no. 4 (March 1936): John B. Schneider and J. M. Thompson, “Truck Crops,” unnumbered p. 2, “Imperial Valley Lettuce.”

In 1935 the national unemployment rate remained at almost twenty-two percent.—After Watkins, p. 258.

“. . . the Depression . . . altered the political terrain . . .”—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Paul S. Taylor papers. Carton 4. Folder 4:26: “Future of Mexican Immigration: Draft w/Corrections and Notes, 1976” (published as Chapter 11, Corwin, Arthur E. [ed.],
Immigrants . . .
), p. 4. I have used the original, uncorrected version of this sentence. In
Mexican Labor in the United States: Migration Statistics. IV
, p. 25, Table 1 (“Migration of Mexican Citizens . . .”), Taylor shows the following: Between 1930 and 1933 inclusive, 337,000 Mexicans returned to their home country from the United States. About one-tenth of them were tourists. During the same period, 72,000 Mexicans entered the U.S., half of them being tourists.

Excerpts from “How It Feels to Be Broke at Sixty . . .”—Wilsie, pp. 1-3.

“W. E. Wilsie’s new home two miles west of El Centro . . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 195.

Reasons for the loss of Wilsie Ranch—Ibid., p. 4 (Owen Miller’s letter to Stacy Vellas).

“Since 1930, the most despised and detested group of men . . .”—Watkins, p. 43, quoting “a British visitor” (source: Allen Nevins, ed.,
America Through British Eyes
). How despised might they have been before 1930? In 1922 the state of California had shut down the Farmers & Merchants Bank in Imperial, but, as Otis P. Tout proudly informs us, “local capital came to the rescue, and the bank opened again. It closed for good in 1927” (
The First Thirty Years
, p. 267.) I’ve found that the way to get your money is to give a man a chance to pay you.

The advertisement of Henry L. Loud—Imperial Valley Directory (1930), p. 38.

Imperial County statistics 1930, from fruit-packing sheds to canals—Imperial County Agriculture Commission Papers. “Imperial County, California. 1930 Statistics.”

90 . Market Prices (1919 -1931)

Epigraph: “Sometimes it seems that Fortune deliberately plays with us.”—Montaigne, p. 198 (“Fortune is often met in the path of reason”).

91. In a Still More Advantageous Position (1928 -1942)

Epigraph: “Of all the western myths . . .”—Phillips et al., p. 37.

Width of the Imperial Main Canal—Caption to an ICHSPM photograph, cat. #P91.202.2.

Listing of Swing as Imperial County’s District Attorney in 1912-13—Imperial Valley Directory (1912), p. v.

“Schemers or impractical dreamers of the Mark Rose type.”—
Los Angeles Times
, December 15, 1920, p. II8 (“WATER USERS MAKE PROTEST”).

“Swing is energetic, popular and efficient . . .”—Howe and Hall, p. 157.

Face-off between IID and CRLC in 1920—
Los Angeles Times
, December 17, 1920, p. III3 (“RATE PLAN PUT UP TO MEXICO”).

Footnote: “Because it had a vested interest in the crucial resource that made its own lands economically useful . . .” —Kerig, p. 48.

Exchange between Swing and CRLC in 1924—
Los Angeles Times
, August 6, 1924, p. 6 (“PROMISE AID IN WATER CRISIS. Letter from Landowners Kills Rumor”).

Doings in 1925—Senate Committee on the Colorado River Basin (1925), pp. 1, 3, 66, 108.

Prediction that an All-American Canal will bankrupt 70% of the landowners in the Imperial Valley—
Los Angeles Times
, December 27, 1925, p. B4 (“SELFISH INTERESTS”).

Imperial Valley’s resolutions of Mayday 1926—
Imperial Valley Press
, Saturday, May 1, pp. 1-2.

A. Giraudo’s cantaloupes—Ibid., p. 1.

“The All-American Canal on the eastern shoreline . . .”—Shields Date Gardens, p. 17.

Premier of “The Winning of Barbara Worth”—Wright, p. 382 (Appendix III).

Los Angeles’ pro-Boulder-Dam exhibit in Brawley, 1926—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 249.

Swing-Johnson celebration: “The Western Union telegram has been pinned to the flower-heaped table . . .” —ICHSPM photograph, in cat. #P85.

Eugene Dahm’s memories—Interview in Imperial (city), January 2002.

Edith Karpen’s memories—Interview in Sacramento, January 2004. Her daughter Alice Woodside was present.

“An inappropriate answer to a misconceived problem . . .”—Munguía, p. xv (Helen Ingram).

“When new lands are added through construction of the All-American Canal . . .”—State of California. Department of Transportation. Transportation Library, Sacramento. Imperial folder. Official map of the city of El Centro, 1931, by Philip W. Knights, City Engineer.

Footnote: fertile county acreage—Imperial Valley Directory (1930), p. 14. The same prediction of a million acres is made here.

Predictions of the El Centro Chamber of Commerce in 1939—Imperial Valley Directory (1939), p. 11.

“Signaling the beginning of work . . .”—Laflin,
A Century of Change
, entry for 1932.

Aqueduct Miners’ Day—Laflin,
Coachella Valley
, p. 95.

Photos: All-American Canal dam gates, aqueduct through mountains—Bristol, pp. 48-49 (both from 1941).

Bureau of Reclamation photo from October 1951—California State Archives. Olson Photo Collection. Accession #94-06-27 (395-533). Box 3 of 7. Folder 94-06-27 (395-409): Industry—Dams. Photo #94-06-27-0398. BCP 8648. October 4, 1951, by Mark Swain.

“With the practically limitless Boulder Canyon power now available . . .”—Los Angeles City Directory (1942), p. 13.

“Then he goes happily to bed, his conscience clear . . .”—Lewis, p. 651
(Babbitt).

“Today the trees that bore that crop are again white with blossoms . . .”—Parcher and Parcher, p. 45 (“The Last Apple Crop”).

Water use of Los Angeles in 1905—McGroarty, vol. 1, p. 273.

“Bolder than British dreams of Egypt.”—Ibid., p. 274.

“Anyone wishing further information concerning Imperial Valley farm lands . . .”—Imperial County Agricultural Commission papers. “Imperial County, California. 1928 Statistics.” In the following year, the L.A. address was omitted.