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Show 156 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER "And the vehicle for this sellout, this double-cross, is, unfortunately, a party which has a great stake in the orderly prosecution of western development as an answer to critics who have resented what they consider to be reckless plunder of the Treasury in the past." The Denver Post knew what it was doing. One did not need great imagination to picture the President's mother- in-law coming in to breakfast at the White House and indignantly shoving the Post editorial under Mr. Eisen- hower's nose. "Dwight, what is the meaning of this, etc. etc. etc.?" It would have been enough to make any worthy son- in-law grab the telephone and appeal to party leaders to save him from such wrath and the accompanying cold looks of his beloved spouse. But Mr. Eisenhower would not have needed to make such a call to know that the Post had evidence to sup- port its charges. The House Rules Committee was adamant in its refusal to release the bill, and a stout Republican, Leo E. Allen of Illinois, was the committee chairman. Ranking next was Clarence J. Brown of Ohio, and no more ardent, or perhaps influential, Re- publican belonged to the House. The committee's excuse for pigeonholing the crsp was that it did not wish to put such a controversial piece of legislation on the floor with adjournment of the Eighty-third Congress so near. That was a poor alibi, and the truth was that not only were Allen and Brown opposed to wasteful spending for unsound western water projects, but so were some of their conservative Demo- cratic colleagues on the committee, notably the ranking Democrat, Howard Smith of Virginia. It was Smith who disclosed this situation in an off-the-record con- |
