5 letters: Henry Miller’s legacy; e-cigs; Caley Camarillo; SB1272; drought development

So who the heck was Henry Miller? And why should we give a darn?
Dear Editor,
He was an immigrant who made it big on his own merits. Like Huntington, Stanford, Crocker and Hopkins, who made profited royally in Sacramento supplying the miners during the gold rush and later made great wealth building the western part of the Continental Railroad, Miller took huge risks that paid off. But he didn’t make it on Federal loan money as did the Big Four; he made it on his own money. Along with his partner, Charles Lux, of course, who handled things in San Francisco.
He married twice. The first was the sister-in-law of Charles Lux, his partner in Miller and Lux, one of the companies which continued after Lux’s death. The second was the sister of his first wife; she preferred to live in San Francisco.
He had four kids. A son, who was typical of sons of amazing fathers, and who died without children at age 44; and three daughters, one who died in infancy, one who died thrown from a horse, racing down the drive at Bloomfield Ranch at age 7, and Nellie who grew up and married J. Leroy Nickel.
Nellie was deeded everything with her husband three years less one month before Henry died in 1916 at age 89. That one month loss was to screw the family into paying huge amounts of federal inheritance taxes that didn’t get sorted out until 1968.
In the effort to fund the tax debt, Bloomfield Ranch, which was Henry’s home ranch at the base of Pacheco Pass during his working life, and the Glen Ranch just west of the City of Gilroy, were sold piecemeal to various local people here in Gilroy. Christmas Hill Park is part of that dissolution. The ranch site that holds the Miller Red Barn was sold by the Henry Miller estate to the Filice brothers as the San Martin Winery in 1941, five months before Pearl Harbor.
Henry Miller was what some people want to call a Robber Baron. Everything he did was legal. Successful entrepreneurs of his day did the same. He was also for many years very poor, because everything he did was to increase his holdings, and that cost money which he invested in the California Central Valley lands. When the California state government encouraged financial investment in the Central Valley, Henry invested every cent he made selling beef, lamb and pork in acquiring the land and the water rights in the Central Valley.
Locally, when Miller settled at the base of Pacheco Pass in order to access his interests in the California Central Valley, he wanted to know what he owned. He had bought 1,800 acres of the Las Animas Rancho, upon which sits the City of Gilroy. So he instituted a friendly lawsuit with Massey Thomas, also a landowner where the Sports Park is no to determine where boundaries and rights existed. Several years later when the suits were settled, the fundamental boundaries were set for all succeeding property lots in Gilroy and much of the surrounding area. So, if you own property here, and feel secure in your rights, thank Henry Miller.
So was he a Robber Baron? It depends upon one’s interpretation of events. But Dane Coolidge, a well known Western writer of the 1930s says that Miller succeeded because he never sold any of his land, and he never sold any of his cattle. He improved all his land to be productive, and he the seasonal vagaries of the weather in California. And he made the “people” his friends.
So there you are. Make of it what you will.
Carol DeSantis, Gilroy
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E-cigarettes a ‘win-win’ for public health
Dear Editor,
Here comes the sound of anti-smokers talking about the harms of e-cigarettes—you know, the ones that burn no tobacco and only heat up a solution containing nicotine. No harms are known either to the smoker or anyone close by but that still will not stop the shrill voice of the tobacco critic claiming regulation must be done to protect the public from the great unknown.
What part of “no danger” don’t you understand?
What cancer is to a healthy body is the same as a regulator is to a healthy nation that wants to do its job or live its life and be left alone from a bully, disguised as a public servant.
Even the harms of passive smoking were manufactured by public health. A claim of danger brought about by junk science brought in over $1 billion over the last 20 years of public health (taxpayer) and other special interest moneys. The tobacco settlement brought in hundreds of billions. Would ongoing paydays like this be an incentive to cook the books? What do you think?! It has been enough money to purchase a cultural shift in attitudes.
When critics complained they were always ignored, even when the most basic premise of science is the debate of the legitimacy of the claim, why should e-cigarettes be any different? Junk science factories already have the gears humming because of the possible regulation by the FDA. The science of risk assessment has been corrupt and badly broken since the mid 1980’s and has been able to make up the rules of acceptable science as they went.
It is classic that e-cigarettes have given public health everything they said they wanted: smoke with no odor or effects to bystanders and safer for smokers because they don’t inhale anything burning to get nicotine. Are anti-smokers happy now? No. An e-cigarette legitimizes smoking again, and that scares anti-smokers to death. This means that things will become much better for smokers. Public health will improve and smokers may well be saved from illness by quitting regular cigarettes. It is a public health win-win for everyone who legitimately cares about social welfare.
The FDA is now taking public comment through July 9 about the possible regulation of e-cigarettes and it invites your comments. Go to regulations.gov and do a search for e-cigarette regulation by the FDA to leave a comment.
Dave Pickrell
President and founder, Smokers Fighting Discrimination, Inc., Katy, TX
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Caley Camarillo’s positive community impact
Dear Editor,
Caley Camarillo is a young lady that the Gilroy Dispatch has featured several times in her 12-year battle against cystic fibrosis. Last Friday, June 13, cystic fibrosis won. This was a young person who never complained, excelled in school, always had a smile ready yet suffered tremendously and quietly. Her positive outlook had and still has a great impact on people of all ages in our community. It would be so meaningful to all these people to have a feature story written on this remarkable girl. She is certainly an inspiration to all who have met her as well as those who will read about her.
Pam Tognetti, Gilroy
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Pass SB1272 in CA Assembly Appropriations Committee
Dear Editor,
It’s hard to understand why legislators have been so reluctant to take a position on overturning the Citizens’ United. Since they haven’t taken action, let the voters try by putting SB1272 on the November ballot. We are the voice of the people, not corporations!
Connie Rogers, Gilroy
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Housing water demand start contrast to state drought restrictions
Dear Editor,
As is well known, California is experiencing a severe drought. Last year was one of California’s driest years. Because of this, Governor Brown has declared a drought state of emergency and has asked Californian’s redouble their efforts to conserve water. He is working with various agencies to cut red tape and get water to farmers more quickly. Water deliveries have been slightly boosted by the Department of Water for the rest of 2014, and still there is a serious water shortage.
I do not understand then how is it that Gilroy and Morgan Hill have several housing developments either under construction or just completed.No amount of conserving could come close to compensating for the huge increase in demand for water that the new housing has created. If there isn’t enough of a natural resource for the current demand, why is a huge increase being placed on that same resource?
Cheryl Anderson, Gilroy