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Show THE WESTERN WEB 59 The puzzle was not explained, and Larson moved on to other matters. When at last he left the stand, McFar- land at once turned from technical aspects of his case and began to call men to the stand who were in the category of "emotion" witnesses. The first was Wayne M. Akin, president of the Western Farm Management of Phoenix. 12 "This em- pire (Arizona) which we have created from the desert is in grave danger," he declared. "The situation is desper- ate . . . No one is to blame for the situation, which has been occasioned by perhaps over-optimistic calculations as to the amount of water available for irrigation." Next came C. H. McKellips, a citrus grower of Mesa, who made a similar plea, adding that it took eight years to get production from an orange tree. 13 There were, he declared, somewhat irrelevantly, orange trees in Cali- fornia seventy-five years old. He gave way to Victor I. Corbell, a farmer of Tempe, Arizona, who followed a similar theme. 14 In his hand Downey had a brightly-colored pamphlet. "I would like to ask Mr. Corbell," he said, "if he knows under whose supervision the pamphlet that I have here, entitled Presenting the Central Arizona Project To You, containing the picture of a very beautiful young lady and a very beautiful grapefruit on the outside, was pre- pared?" "I think under the supervision of Mr. Bryan Akers and a group of people around the valley who are inter- ested," said Corbell. Chairman Millikin, obviously amused, asked if Downey thought the pamphlet had contaminated him. Downey said he knew of nothing that could contaminate |
