| OCR Text |
Show THE THREE-RING CIRCUS 195 ment," and then announced that the hearings would be adjourned for seventeen days.267 His excuse was that no more time was available to the committee, that its schedule for this period was full. That was true, because Murdock had seen to it that the schedule was full. The postponement had been designed, as Engle and others were to discover, with malice aforethought. It would interrupt the California presentation at a crucial time. More than twenty lawyers, engineers and other witnesses would be obliged to remain idle in Washington for more than two weeeks, or make the expensive round- trip to California, for which, of course, California tax- payers would pay. There was, however, another reason for the delaying tactics. Obviously there would not be time enough to get the project bill to the House floor during the first session of the Eighty-first Congress. That schedule also was full. Thus, there was no hurry. A few weeks' postponement would not make any difference to Arizona, but it would seriously inconvenience California and Nevada. May 30, 1949 Murdock asserted his authority to interrupt California further by allowing the state of New Mexico to present several witnesses to testify in support of the project.268 Then he called upon two attorneys who were on hand to represent an Indian tribe that would be affected by the project. They were Felix S. Cohen and Barnett E. Marks. Marks deferred to Cohen. If Murdock had known what Cohen would say, he would not have been so willing to allow him to speak. |
