OCR Text |
Show -22- aqueduct has been built and the aqueduct can not be built until a right of way has been acquired. The district has voted the bonds, amounting to $220,000,000. The supreme court of our State has held the bonds valid. When this right of way has been acquired and the bonds marketed, we can put a large number of men to work at once building this great aqueduct, which is the largest undertaking of its kind ever attempted by any government. I hope this bill will be enacted. Mr. Swing. Mr. Speaker, I yield one minute to the gentleman from California [Mr. Crail]. Mr. Crail. Mr. Speaker, none of this land is in my district, but the people of Los Angeles and of all of southern California are very greatly interested in this bill. This is not a grab bill. It is not true, as has been stated here, that it would convey all of the lands of the public domain in Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties to the Metropolitan Water District, of southern California. The bill merely authorizes the conveyance of all of the land in those counties which the Secretary of the Interior may find necessary for the metropolitan aqueduct, its laterals, and accessories, and that will be one line from the Colorado River through Beaumont Pass, which takes in practically all the land required, and from there laterals will be run to the several cities of southern California, mostly over privately owned lands, to be purchased at the expense of the district itself. I hope every Member here will vote for this bill. [Applause.] Mr. Stafford. Mr. Speaker, nothing which I said in the beginning do I now retract; but I reaffirm my every statement. Never before have I known a bill so loosely drawn that would confer such great powers without limita- |
Source |
Original book: [State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Diego, California, and County of San Diego, California, defendants, United States of America, State of Nevada, State of New Mexico, State of Utah, interveners] : California exhibits. |