Copy of a Letter from Willis George Emerson to William Loeb

Copy. E.M. WASHINGTON, D. C., Oct. 13, 1904. To the President Theodore Roosevelt: In behalf of nine thousand people in the Imperial Valley, whom we represent as President and Delegate of the Imperial Valley Water Users Association of California, and in compliance with your request this morning that we submit briefly our de- sires and the desires of our people, we beg to say: First: We wish the Reclamation Bureau to be instructed to make our way smooth and not difficult to bring about public ownership under the provisions of the Reclamation Irrigation law. Second: We have succeeded in arranging to purchase the property worth five or six million dollars for three millions or about one-half what we, the people, know it is worth. It seems to us that the judgment of nine thousand people in the Inperial Valley of California should know better and be more accurate in their estimate of the true value of the Imperial Canal system than even experts. Third: Our people are suffering for immediate action one way or another. We can repay the loan from the Government with- in ten years as provided by the Reclamation law at no greater sacrifice than our pre sent annual payment of water to the private corporation now owning the system. Thus, at the end of ten