OCR Text |
Show 240 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER "Note that the chairman used the word 'filibuster,' " Yorty replied. "I do not believe in filibusters and I have no intention of trying to use delaying tactics against this project. California has had some experience with them when Arizona was opposing the construction of Hoover Dam. "I do think we ought to have full hearings and a little more notice before hearings start on a bill that is this important." 344 Murdock soon understood, if he did not at the moment, that he had a strong new opponent on his committee. Poulson took advantage of the situation by commending Yorty and told him: 345 "I think that after you hear a few days of this testimony . . . you will find out how absolutely fantastic and unreasonable and unbelievable a project it is . "You will find that there is actually existing in this country a bureau, a group within a bureau, of men who would like to build up a dynasty. . . They want to build up their own little kingdom." Murdock neither replied to Poulson nor defended the Bureau of Reclamation. He had other more pressing matters to face, and not the least in importance was the makeup of his committee. Ten of the twenty-seven members were newly elected. However, four of them al- ready had let it be known they had made a study of the project and were unalterably opposed to it. Moreover, California now had three seats on the committee, Engle, Poulson and Yorty. The hearings of 1951 were virtually a re-run of the testimony given in the previous Congress. Murdock's efforts to shorten them were fruitless. Hour after hour |