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Show THE WESTERN WEB 33 Bringing these voices to the attention of the public, California struck simultaneously at the Central Arizona Project, terming it a key that would open the Treasury door and would pour millions of dollars into the pockets of private landowners in Arizona, at the expense of the nation's taxpayers. If the new programs of the Recla- mation Bureau planners, such as S. 1175, were approved by Congress and became public law, said California, they would pave the way for unparalleled desecration of natural resources. They would officially condone and legalize a wanton misuse of public funds. Firing these salvos, California next set out to explain the complicated and technical program of the Recla- mation Bureau, of which the Central Arizona Project was an important part. What the proponents of the new program wanted the taxpayers to think, declared California, was exactly what they had been thinking for many years, namely, that water and power should be taken pretty much for granted. If people were not informed, then the planners of the Reclamation Bureau would have an easier job. California did not propose to let that happen. It was pointed out that previously the new program had been revealed only in piecemeal fashion, and it had gone up to Congress in numerous disguises. The cost of the proposed project, charged California, had been deliberately underestimated, and engineering and financial factors had been withheld. Such acts, it was contended, were violations of the law, but the perpe- trators had powerful allies, not only in Washington but among western landowners, western bankers and businessmen, and a powerful group of western senators, all of whom wanted new projects at any cost and cared |
