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Show THE WESTERN WEB 73 States Government consented to become a party to the action. Now, said Shaw, legislation was to be intro- duced at once asking Congress to consent to the United States becoming a party to a suit to determine the rights to waters of the Lower Basin. After more than twenty-five years of attempting to secure a settlement of the controversy, California and Nevada, Shaw disclosed, would turn together to the only place where a solution might be found - the highest court of the land. Because the Federal Government was a necessary party to the litigation, California and Ne- vada had to obtain the permission of Congress to take the government into court. The government could not be made a party without such consent. "It is not in order for any state to ask the Congress to risk hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money on building a project for which there may or may not be a water supply," said Shaw. "It is particularly out of order when the state (Arizona) neither offers to under- write the project nor to furnish security that its conten- tions are correct. For these reasons the orderly and prudent procedure is to determine first whether there is a water supply for the Central Arizona Project, and then what kind of project appears to be feasible and justified." McFarland interjected that Congress had authorized millions for projects in California, and Shaw told him: "Congress has never erected a project in California without a signed contract from a responsible institution capable of repaying the money advanced. That is the difference between that situation and this one, because no one under this proposed bill offers or agrees to pay back anything." Raymond Matthew, chief engineer of the Colorado |