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Show 32 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER Robert W. Sawyer, president of the National Recla- mation Association, when he appeared before a con- gressional irrigation committee on February 5, 1947.1 Sawyer had testified: Reclamation . . . rests on the tolerance of the East, where lies the voting strength and whence comes the larger share of the tax funds that service congressional ap- propriations. We fear the end of reclamation appropriation unless the projects pay their way Sawyer had stated the policy of the leaders of the National Reclamation Association, who came from the seventeen western states, in these words: 2 The tolerance that was developed east of the Mississippi, first for a self-contained reclamation program they believe will come to an end and with it all reclamation if multiple-purpose project power is not primarily directed to aid irrigation while at the same time being placed on a sound government investment basis. Another influential western voice supporting the same conviction was that of Senator Butler of Nebraska, who had said in 1946: 3 The people of the rest of the country must be convinced of the soundness of the program, or else it will never get through. Your senators and congressmen from reclamation states do not constitute a majority in either house of Con- gress; far from it. We must win and merit additional sup- port from other states One of the best ways to do that is to keep this program on just as much of a business basis as possible. Our re- clamation laws have been written on the idea that the costs chargeable to reclamation and power should be paid back to the Federal Treasury. I believe that is a pretty sound principle |