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Show 60 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER the chairman, and over vigorous protests from McFar- land he offered the pamphlet in evidence. He did not disclose his purpose in introducing it, but McFarland was fully aware of that purpose. The pamphlet con- tained full-page photographs of Secretary of the Interior Krug and Reclamation Commissioner Strauss. Under the photographs were their dramatic statements sup- porting the Central Arizona Project. Federal laws for- bade government officials from lending their pictures and signatures for propaganda purposes. D. L. Stapley, a Phoenix hardware dealer, was McFarland's next witness. 15 It was his contention that all the hard work of Arizona pioneers would be under- mined and wasted unless the project were approved by Congress. "Businessmen (in Arizona)," he declared, "have cur- tailed buying of merchandise and are casting a watchful eye on the turn of events resulting from insufficient water." In the room as Stapley spoke was Walter R. Bim- son,16 president of the Valley National Bank of Phoenix. He would at a later time knock the foundations from under all such statements, much to the despair of the project supporters, but at the moment he was scheduled to speak in another vein, and he followed McFarland's script. "In asking for the passage of this bill," he told the committee, "we are doing so as businessmen presenting a sound business proposal. An investment in Arizona is a sound investment. To maintain our present level of agricultural production we must have more water. This will assure the continuation of our principal source of wealth." |
