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Show 50 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER Admittedly the commission had been worried about the repayment problem for some time.61 The brochure noted that it was the "existing policy of Federal Recla- mation laws" to use the interest returned on power pro- jects to help pay costs of irrigation developments. The Budget Bureau had made it clear in a-47 that there was no such law. Whatever else it said, the Upper Basin Commission had only one purpose in mind, and that was to use the "interest component" subsidy system which the Budget Bureau had so vigorously attacked. The brochure painted a rosy picture of how the interest-component method would not only benefit reclamation but the nation as a whole. In the case of crsp, of course, it would take 103 years to pay for it. That was what the Reclamation Bureau said, too, and what it wanted. The chief authority cited by the brochure was C. B. Jacobson, a hydrologist of the Reclamation Bureau. He may have been an expert in his chosen calling, but the quotes attributed to him reveal that he was also a fi- nancial wizard. Jacobson made these points, among many others, in his attempt to justify use of the interest component: 62 1 - It would take fifty-seven years to repay the cost of the federal investment in the power feature of the crsp. During this period no interest on the loan would be repaid to the Treasury, so that at the end of fifty- seven years, the project's account would contain $693 million. 2 - This money, which really belonged to the Treasury (or the taxpayers), would be used to pay off the cost of the irrigation features. This would be done in the 65th year after the project had been started. |