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Show -24- voted can not be expended under the laws of California on land which they do not own. Therefore, this law becomes necessary in order to give them requisite title. This district has a contract with the United States Government which calls for it paying into the Treasury of the United States $2,750,000 annually, and the amount may run over that. If this bill is voted down, the United States Government thereby makes impossible the carrying out of its own contract. This is the greatest proposition that has ever been proposed in the way of courageous citizens of cities combining to get for themselves a necessary water supply, bringing it 264 miles across the desert, spending their own money, amounting to $220,000,000, and putting over 10,000 men to work during the five years it will be under construction. And yet we stand here quibbling over words and over a piece of desert land as barren as any of God's rocks on the hillsides, where nothing lives and nothing can live except coyotes, rattlesnakes, and horned toads. I earnestly ask you not to stand in the way of such a great public improvement. [Applause.] The Speaker. The question is on the suspension of the rules and the passage of the bill. The question was taken; and on a division (demanded by Mr. Stafford) there were-ayes 79, noes 35. Mr. Stafford. Mr. Speaker, I make the point of order there is not a quorum present. The Speaker (after counting). Two hundred and thirty-one Members present, a quorum. So (two-thirds having voted in favor thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed. |
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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. |