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Show JANUARY ON CAPITOL HILL 85 This did not reflect the interest of the citizenry in the crsp as a whole. It signified only one thing: that the country was stirred to anger by the proposal to destroy the beauties of a national monument with a power dam. Rep. Saylor estimated that for every letter complaining about the cost of the project to taxpayers, there were five hundred pleading with Congress to save Dinosaur. The advocates of Echo Park Dam were fully aware of the situation, for they, too, were receiving hundreds of letters from irate nature lovers, and many of them were anything but courteous. Although he was taking advantage of the politeness of the House committee in according him the privilege of participating in the hear- ings, Senator Watkins did not let that deter him from giving orders and devising strategy. He saw the neces- sity of getting in more licks for Echo Park Dam before the conservationists came to bat, and he determined that one way to accomplish that, which might prove effective, was to call witnesses who not only would advocate the dam but hailed from the conservationsts' ranks. There were some available. At least, there were some after Watkins applied himself to the matter. It was dis- closed that A. Ray Olpin, president of the University of Utah, had conducted a campus campaign to enlist pro- fessional opinions in favor of the dam. Several letters in support of turning Dinosaur over to power production were received from faculty members of the university's geology and anthropology departments, and were read into the record.106 Another letter to the committee came from the Wasatch Mountain Club, and there was even one from a turncoat member of the Sierra Club, the most vigorous opponent of the project.107 |
