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Show THE THREE-RING CIRCUS 181 resources.245 He also deemed it advisable to create an organization in Arizona in the nature of a conservancy district, "with the power to levy taxes, and to contract with the United States for payment of reimbursable project costs allocated to irrigation, municipal water, and miscellaneous purposes. . ." "These qualifications," Moritz continued, "would place upon Arizona necessary responsibilities which only Arizona can assume. The present bill does not require that Arizona assume these responsibilities, and to that extent provides a lesser assurance of project success than seems warranted." One might have wagered with safety that not only Murdock had not read Moritz's statement, but that Reclamation Commissioner Straus did not know what it contained, or Moritz would not have been permitted to send it out of Boulder City. However, the voice of Straus also was heard this Saturday morning through a prepared statement, and in it he efficiently overrode the recommendations made by his aide without having seen them. Murdock gave Straus to the record, too. The commissioner took note that a controversy over water rights existed, and expressed the hope that Con- gress, in considering the project, would give this con- flict "the full consideration it deserves."245 The Reclamation Bureau, said Straus, had no in- tention of adjudicating the controversy, and then clearly revealed the Bureau's intent by stating: "In our studies of the Central Arizona project, we have used, as a basis for our calculations of available water, the interpretations by officials of the state of Arizona." He added: "Available water supplies in the central part of Arizona have been greatly over-developed. Un- |