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Show Part Six When he sat down in Room 318 of the Senate Office Building on the morning of February 28, 1955, to con- sider S. 500, Chairman Anderson of the Subcommittee on Irrigation disclosed his attitude toward it in unmis- takable terms. He reminded the crowd before him that "comprehensive hearings" already had been held on the crsp, and he thought they had been "very thorough and careful hearings." 223 In printed form they composed a volume of 690 pages. These were available to anyone who cared to read them. It was Anderson's expressed hope that witnesses would not be necessarily repetitious and would confine their remarks to new material. The three other senators at the table with Anderson - O'Mahoney, Millikin and Watkins - nodded in ap- proval. * The only difference between the hearings that were beginning and a bogus dollar bill was that the hearings were legal. Certainly they were of no more value. Yet, the law said they must be held, and they would be held. * The fifth member of the subcommittee, Jackson of Washington, was not present, but if he had never appeared at the hearings it would not have mattered. His vote for the bill was in Anderson's pocket. |