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Show 106 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER A former state engineer of Nevada, Malone had been for many years active in Colorado River matters, and he declared that it had always been evident to him "that the Lower Basin states would never agree upon a division of the waters. . . Therefore, since an agree- ment is very unlikely, an adjudication by a court of competent authority seemed the only way." Malone injected a new theory into the hearing with the assertion that no Lower Basin state had any specified right for any amount of water from the river, because there was no compact between the Lower Basin states which established rights. The basic Colorado River Compact merely set up machinery for the formulation of Lower Basin and Upper Basin compacts, but "since there has been no agreement between the Lower Basin states . . . then it is wide open." Referring to the water contracts signed by Lower Basin states with the Secretary of the Interior, Malone declared: ". . . the Secretary of the Interior in the last fifteen years has had a habit of taking on a good deal of authority, and all [his] actions do not have the weight of law. Mr. I ekes was entirely unfamiliar with water law in the West . . . and the present Secre- tary, Mr. Krug, is entirely unfamiliar with our methods of water use in the West, and therefore it comes back to the old saying, 'no one can talk quite so convincingly on a subject as someone entirely unhampered by the facts.' " Millikin seemed to be amused as he inserted a state- ment opposing SJR. 145 from Senator Robertson of Wyoming.102 At long last, Millikin received a report on SJR. 145 from the Secretary of the Interior,103 which he had re- |
