AZ vs. CA:12 California Exhibits, Vol. XII; Nos. 1350-1383; 1400-1446; 1501-1518; 1601-1603; 1701-1703

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__2__ effective unless and until ratified by the legislatures of all of the States and the Congress of the United States, was just as sacred a provision as any other in the document, and presupposed, if it meant anything at all, that any State might, in the exercise of its judgment, and without stultification, decline to accept it. There was no thought or suggestion of force, and there should not be. As to why Arizona did not ratify the compact, I believe that no one in the State has a better right to speak than I. I was an original advocate of ratification and one of the most active. The same may be said of Senator Carl Hayden. We will not be required to prove that we were honest in the view we had. If we had not been, we probably would not have modified it. That house of the legislature of which I was a member lacked but one vote of ratification. But one vote was lacking in the other house. As a matter of fact, there were very few bitter-end opponents of ratification in either house, but there were many members who, while strongly favoring a compact, yet were troubled by harassing doubt, some with respect to one provision, some another, of the proposed agreement before them. One of these was Congressman Douglas, who now sits with you. He was at the time a member of the house of representatives of the Arizona Legislature. Perhaps to him as much as to any other is due the failure of the Arizona Legislature to ratify the Colorado compact at that time. At any rate, it was not ratified, and in the light of interpretations which have subsequently been placed upon certain provisions of the document, and in the face of certain subsequent events, I am forced to acknowledge the present conviction that ratification of the compact would have been highly dangerous, if not fatal to Ari-