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Show LAST LEGISLATIVE FIGHT 263 in the future, would adversely affect the growth of our cities. He said that even if the populations of Phoenix and Tucson were to double they would require only an additional 50,000 acre-feet of water." The reaction of Bimson and other leaders, as well as that of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, perhaps was best explained by a columnist in the Arizona Re- public, who wrote: 383 "Life Magazine is at present about as popular in Arizona, and especially the Phoenix area, as an,ts at a picnic. "The powers-that-be of a large eastern investment company reportedly saw the magazine portrayal, and forthwith canceled a planned program to buy $3,000,000 in mortgages on a Phoenix subdivision. "Nothing shakes people out of their lethargy faster than a kick in the pocketbook, and Phoenix business leaders responded nobly to the severe jolt - and rushed to man the guns." The second incident which augmented the sadness of the Arizona congressional delegation and other project supporters was caused by the same Banker Bimson in the August, 1951, report on Arizona agricultural con- ditions, which he prepared for his bank. It said in part: "Last year was a very dry year, quite comparable to this one. Yet we produced last year the largest volume of crops ever grown in Arizona. This year we shall again produce a record crop. Our dollar volume should be as great, or greater, than last year. "Our bank makes each year many millions of dollars of crop production loans. Our field men ... re- ported to me that they do not know of a single borrowing customer who will not be able to liquidate his loans |