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Show THE THREE-RING CIRCUS 187 dures so blatantly deceitful that he broke in to ask if its officials were not "subject to a point of order." The matter was not decided before the session adjourned. May 6, 1949 The nationwide campaign being conducted by the Colorado River Association against the project and the extravagant plans of the Reclamation Bureau was bring- ing results. Members of Congress were receiving large numbers of letters from persons in all sections of the country asking that the wasteful program be halted. That the project proponents were concerned by the situ- ation became apparent when Murdock took the time to speak caustically in committee about the "propaganda line" from California, and charged that material being sent out from there contained "very questionable state- ments purporting to be facts." 253 W. W. Lane, the Phoenix consulting engineer who had been an Arizona witness in previous hearings, brought a matter into the discussion which did not please Mur- dock. It illustrated how poorly prepared the Arizona case was, and revealed a lack of coordination between witnesses. Lane stated that average natural water losses in the Phoenix area amounted to 527,000 acre-feet annually through evaporation and consumption of water by wild vegetation. Channels had become filled with phreato- phytes, or water-loving plants. "There are areas where such growth has become so dense and rank that there is practically no water channel," he said.254 The word "phreatophytes," heretofore unheard in the hearing, amused the newspapermen, and they made use of it. It didn't amuse Murdock. Lane's statement con- firmed California claims that Arizona could secure a |
