| OCR Text |
Show 150 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER If there were any kind of an organization in Cali- fornia, or the other Colorado River Basin states, that did not make its views known to Congress, it must have been because no one in that organization could write. If there were a newspaper in the United States that didn't print a story about the project controversy, it must have been because the editor didn't open his mail. So almost each day someone arose in Congress to re- veal that some American, or some association, had taken a firm position for or against the crsp. Both California and the conservationists, although operating separately, had advantages over the Upper Basin states when it came to publicity opportunities. There were in Los Angeles County alone not only more people than there were in the entire Upper Basin, but more associations, unions, clubs and civic organizations of every type and description. The conservationists were linked in a chain from coast to coast. Virtually every city and town had a "chapter" made up of people inter- ested in scenery, wildlife, nature study or sports, and these "chapters" were, in most cases, sprigs from a tree that spread its branches across the nation. The Colorado River Association's Los Angeles and Washington offices worked unceasingly to rally all manner of local and national organizations, and all newspapers, to the banner carried by the forces op- posing the project. The campaign paid dividends, and almost every day a congressman or senator informed his colleagues, as Rep. Yorty, for instance, did on July 21, 1954, that someone somewhere was opposed to the crsp. In Yorty's case he presented Congress with state- ments from the Property Owners Association of Cali- |
