OCR Text |
Show 246 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER eyes. No objection came from either Arizona or Cali- fornia, and the departure was set for March 17, 1951.* Murdock made an impassioned plea to members making the trip: 35° "My God, men, I have wrested with this thing for fourteen years as a member of this body, standing with my back to the wall, to see that Arizona got a dipper full of water, but as I explained to you yesterday . by reason of her birth condition in the Enabling Act of June 20, 1910, and her own constitution, Arizona is shut off from the river and we cannot get a dipper full out of the river, nor a kilowatt of power without the consent of the United States Government. "I beg you to give Arizona some authorization for water. This bill may not be perfect. The object of this committee is to perfect it, but give Arizona an authori- zation and I leave it to your good judgment and sense of justice as to that authorization, providing only that it is not a mockery, and that it is effective toward a judicial determination of her rights. "I would not want, as sometimes is done in a will, to have an irate donor cut off an heir by willing one dollar to make the will legal. "Arizona's authorization must be a bona fide, real authorization, or the Supreme Court will not touch it." He thereupon adjourned the hearings until April 9th. The committee observers visited water developments in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, went to the Imperial Valley and the Coachella Valley, saw the All * On the inspection tour in California were Reps. Regan of Texas; Saylor and O'Neill of Pa.; Harrison of Wyo.; Bow of Ohio; McMullen of Fla.; Wharton of N.Y.; and Engle, Yorty and Poulson of Calif. Neither Murdock of Ariz., nor Baring of Nev., went to California, but they met the members in their own states. |