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Show BANANAS ON PIKE'S PEAK 205 the upper river, and it was his view that such a well of plenty should receive its just due. In the project bill, Colorado would be given only about 3.5 per cent of the project money. He wanted twenty per cent, and he in- tended to get it.232 He threw another scare into the committee with the statement that the Upper Basin states had to be governed by all the conditions that were in the Colorado River Compact and not just those parts of the compact that they liked.233 If the framers of the compact had made a mistake in over-estimating the flow of the river, declared Johnson, they had, nevertheless, written "some binding conditions in the compact. . . It seems to me this language is pretty straight-from-the-shoulder. . ." 234 Watkins showed his relief when Johnson left. He enjoyed much more the sort of testimony that was given by Val Peterson, Civil Defense administrator. Peterson obviously had been ordered by the White House to give the crsp a boost, and he obeyed. In the event of enemy attack, he declared, great numbers of persons would flee inland from the West Coast. Prepar- ations for such a catastrophe should be made. The Russians had a second line of industry established be- yond the Ural Mountains, and the same idea would be good for the United States. Thus, development of the Upper Basin would create a haven for those fleeing atomic bombs, and the crsp would make possible in- dustrial expansion.235 With that short statement Peterson would have de- parted, but Watkins knew a good thing when he heard it, and he held him on the witness stand, proceeding to explore the subject ad nauseum. When Peterson ap- |
