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Show THE THREE-RING CIRCUS 215 Knowland vigorously objected to the railroading tactics, and Minority Leader Wherry supported him. Lucas adjourned the session in order to halt the argument, and announced that he would seek a solution. February 8, 1950 Lucas proffered a suggested agreement It said that S. 75 would not be brought to a vote during the Lincoln Day Dinner period, but would be voted on February 21. The agreement was approved by the Senate. Thus Knowland and Downey had defeated the efforts of the Arizona senators to railroad the bill to a quick vote during a period most favorable to the proponents. Downey continued his assault upon the Reclamation Bureau's report, declaring that the cost estimate of the Central Arizona Project was erroneous and undependa- ble. It was the habit of the Reclamation Bureau to underestimate costs. Downey used as an illustration the Welton-Mohawk Project in Arizona. The cost had been estimated at $325 an acre in 1946. When Reclamation Commissioner Straus testified regarding it two years later, the cost had risen seventy per cent, to $530 an acre. Congress, Downey continued, dared not to presume that the Central Arizona Project would not cost as much as thirty-five per cent more than the present estimate. Downey stated: "I have been fighting the waste and extravagance of the Reclamation Bureau and of Mr. Straus and his cohorts for the past five or six years. I have fought the wasteful, grandiose, and dishonest schemes of those men in my own state. ". . . I shall fight these . . . schemes which are emasculating the Federal Treasury, not only in my own state but in Arizona and in other States." 308 |