PULSE OI>' THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. 



EDDY. NEW MEXICO, Jan. 5, 1894. 

 To the Editor of The Irrigation Age: 



In your January number, you refer to the embarrassments of 

 the Bear Valley Irrigation Company. You say that THE AGE has 

 studiously refrained from any discussion of the affairs of the com- 

 pany up to that time, but that now the embarrassment has 

 reached a point where a receiver could no longer be avoided, and 

 it seems necessary to allude briefly to the personal friction be- 

 tween the present and the former manager between Mr. Greene 

 and Mr. Frank E. Brown. 



There has been a studious effort ever since I assumed the Presi- 

 dency of the company to make it appear that the reason for my 

 doing so was owing to personal misunderstandings. This is not 

 the case in any sense of the word. I had no thought of taking the 

 presidency and management of the company until I found that 

 through its mismanagement it was liable to fail in the performance 

 of its obligations to the shareholders, whom I had induced to in- 

 vest in its securities upon the representations made to me by Mr. 

 Brown and his associate directors. Had there been no previous 

 mismanagement of the company I should never have been its 

 president. My circular of October ad was published because at 

 the instance of parties acting for, or in the interest of Mr. Brown 

 and his new schemes, an attack had been made upon the com- 

 pany and its present management, and I simply undertook to 

 make explanations as to that attack, showing at the time the ex- 

 act condition in which the company had been placed. You say, 

 "'Mr. Brown has made no reply to the remarkable indictment." 

 He could make no reply, at least not in the sense of a denial, be- 

 cause every statement made therein was susceptible of proof. 



The card "To the Public" by Mr. Brown is a most remarkable 

 document. For assurance I never saw its equal. A man who had 

 so mismanaged the affairs of the company as to call down upon 

 him the condemnation of every one of his associates, making it 

 necessary, as they expressed it, that he should be "forced or 

 kicked out of the company", proposes to pose as the saviour of 

 the company, to save it from the effects of his own mismanage- 

 ment, or worse. His "forbearance in refraining from the step 

 until now to avoid a controversy which might be injurious to the 

 interests of the company" is particularly good, when ever"y word 

 that has been said and every word that has been published, has 

 been published because of what he has done and said personally. 

 As I have shown in the published statements to shareholders, from 

 the time he sold out his stock and left the directory, months ago, he 

 has been persistently attacking its credit. He has gone so far in 

 fact as to state that the water supply of the company was not 

 properly secured, although he himself had been responsible for 

 securing it. He has offered to sell one-half of the stock in the 

 company when he had no right to sell anything, and generally do- 

 ing all that was in his power with the effect of causing the disaster 

 which has now come, in spite of all the efforts which the other di- 

 rectors and myself have been able to exert. He "regrets very 

 keenly the disaster" which he himself produced. I should think 

 he would. A man, who can mismanage the funds entrusted to 

 him as he has, who can be so utterly lacking of consideration, not 

 only for the welfare of individual investors, who have trusted in 

 hi.s good faith and honesty, but for all similar enterprises, which 

 are dependent upon the investing public to furnish funds for their 

 construction, ought to feel regret, by this time, for what he has 

 done, and he ought to show his penitence in some other form than 

 in such a card as this. He says he has been assailed because he 

 foresaw and had the courage to point out what must be the inevit- 

 able consequences of "the policy pursued by the short-sighted and 

 wrong-headed management." The inevitable consequences, to 

 which he refers, are the direct result of his short-sighted and 

 wrong-headed management, if it should not be expressed in 

 stronger language even than this. 



The Bear Valley enterprise is undoubtedly one of the grandest 



irrigation works in this, or any country, and it is a shame, a cruel 



shame, that such a disaster should be brought upon it for such a 



reason and with such deplorable effect. 



It is noticeable that Mr. Brown calls upon a comparative stran- 



ger to certify as to his good character, and that certificate is made 

 after an examination extending over perhaps ten days. Mr. Cave 

 came to this country in the employ of Mr. Brown as a solicitor, 

 and made the trip at his expense and was his guest for the time 

 being. It strikes me that it would have been quite as appropriate 

 for Mr. Brown to have called upon his associates for a certificate 

 of this kind but it might have been differently expressed. 



As you say, my responsibility originally was simply that of a 

 financial agent. In that respect I was certainly successful, for I 

 furnished nearly two millions and a half of money to the enter- 

 prise, which, if it had been properly managed' during Mr. Brown's 

 regime, would not have been in the condition that it is today. It 

 was not for lack of funds, (which I furnished to them,) but it was 

 through misuse of the funds and mismanagement of the enterprise 

 that the disaster has come. It is a misfortune in every sense of 

 the word a misfortune for which the parties themselves should 

 be held to the strictest accountability; and a misfortune to the 

 irrigation industry, which will suffer more by such a blow to the 

 credit of a leading company than any one can tell. For my own 

 part, I court any investigation which THE AGE may choose to 

 make, and I certainly have no reason, personally, to fear any fair 

 criticism. Very truly yours. 



CHAS. W. GREENE. 



This is positively the last appearance of the per- 

 sonal controversy in the pages of THE AGE, but in 

 " closing the incident" it is only just to state Mr. 

 Brown's position as his friends understand it. 



MR. BROWN AND BEAR VALLEY. 



Frank E. Brown created the Bear Valley system 

 more than any other man. It originated in his brain 

 and it was carried to triumph very largely by his in- 

 domitable pluck and undefeatable energy. When it 

 had reached a stage where its physical success was 

 assured, while its complete development demanded 

 the use of much more money, Mr. Greene assumed 

 the duties of financial agent. Mr. Brown claims that 

 Mr. Greene from that time on directed its financial 

 policy and that he is responsible for the result. Mr. 

 Brown admits that mistakes were made by himself 

 and his associate directors, but does not admit for a 

 moment that any wrongful act was done. He has 

 evaded no responsibility, moral or financial. It is 

 true that he disposed of his holdings in Bear Valley 

 stock, but when he had paid his honest debts with the 

 proceeds he invested the balance under the Bear 

 Valley system and became the largest patron of Bear 

 Valley water. Mr. Greene removed his profits fur- 

 ther East. From the day that the company went into 

 the hands of a receiver Mr. Brown has been trying to 

 assist in bringing about a plan of reorganization that 

 would protect the irrigation districts and stockholders 

 alike. He has devoted very little of his time to be- 

 wailing the past or assailing his critics. And he 

 stands with his face to the sunrise, planning and work- 

 ing, and not without encouraging results, for the 

 good of Southern California. It may be added that 

 in personal conversation he speaks handsomely of 

 Mr. Greene's ability as a promoter, and expresses the 

 hope that he may be blessed with abundant success 

 hereafter. 



