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Show THE THREE-RING CIRCUS 193 five per cent of the irrigated land. Larson said that was correct.263 Then, declared Engle, it was correct that fifty-five per cent of the money that would be spent for irrigation features of the project would go to these 420 farms, and that meant about $550,000 for each one. That was not correct, Larson told him, because the federal 160-acre law would apply, as it did on all federal projects, and that meant no one could receive water for more than 160 acres. Engle had a list of contributors to the Central Arizona Project Association. They totaled about $100,000 for 1949. The question he wished answered was: Was there any significance to the large contributions, one of which amounted to $36,000? * He also mentioned a $15,000 contribution from the Vegetable Growers Association, and noted that the Phelps Dodge mining corporation had subscribed $5,000. There was no significance to them, Carson told him. The contributors were interested in the economy of Arizona. "I wil say this," said Engle.264 "If I owned a ranch out there and my anticipated benefit on an equal-di- vision basis of the $420,000,000 was to be $550,000 to be spent for the benefit of my ranch, I would put up some money, also." But the 160-acre law would apply, insisted Murdock. Engle opened the Reclamation Bureau report on the project. It showed that the largest individual farm in the project area contained 10,430 acres, and there were many containing from four to six thousand acres. Did Carson and Murdock contend that these immense farms were going to be reduced to 160 acres each? Salt River Valley Water Users Association. |
