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Show THE WESTERN WEB 29 citizens association - anyone could belong to it - but it neither sought nor accepted contributions from private citizens. Its supporters were public agencies, municipal corporations or bodies chartered by the state legislature. They looked upon the fight as a struggle to protect and preserve the investments of the people they served. The situation was different in Arizona. The Central Arizona Project would benefit only private landowners, ranchers and farmers, most of whom were already estab- lished in irrigation districts, and they were in no way obligated to repay its costs. The United States Treasury, the federal taxpayers of the Nation, would have to do that if it were built. In winning support on the home front, Arizona was far ahead of California. For several years during the planning of the Central Arizona Project, an intensive propaganda drive had been carried on in Arizona by civic organizations and water agencies. It was based on the assertion that the development was Arizona's only hope of survival, that without the Colorado River water which California claimed, Arizona would dry up and blow away. By 1947, when S. 1175 was introduced in the Senate,* Arizona's senators and congressmen were aware that they had strong public support for the measure at home. No such public support had been organized for California's senators and congressmen, who would have the job of opposing the project. It was to come in time, as a result of the efforts of the Colorado River Associ- ation, but the battle would have been long under way before that time arrived. * An identical bill, HR. 1598, was placed before the House of Representatives. |