OCR Text |
Show LAST LEGISLATIVE FIGHT 247 American Canal, the great Colorado River Aqueduct which carried water hundreds of miles to the coastal plain of Southern California, inspected the Palo Verde Valley, Parker and Hoover Dams, and then moved on to Las Vegas. It was while they were in Las Vegas that they received copies of a cartoon printed in the Phoenix Gazette which pictured them as "inspecting" the sights of Hollywood, Palm Springs and the Las Vegas gambling palaces. The caption of the cartoon was: "Always Willing To Learn." It was the conclusion of some of the committeemen that Arizona was making a deliberate attempt to keep them from inspecting the site of the Central Arizona Project. The suspicion increased their resentment, and one or two proposed the group return directly to Wash- ington after viewing Nevada developments. But other members expressed the opinion that nothing should be permitted to prevent them from completing their inspection. That was what they had come west to do. Failure to visit Arizona would leave them open to severe criticism. This view prevailed, and the congress- men swallowed their resentment and went on to Phoenix. Also, while the committee contingent was touring the Lower Basin, the first of a series of devastating blows against the Arizona project and the proposals of the Reclamation Bureau came from the influential Tax Foundation of Washington, d.c. In its report of March 20, 1951, the foundation said: While the Central Project itself is important, perhaps of even greater significance to taxpayers is the item of the "interest component" on commercial power. The federal reclamation laws provide that the selling price of power derived from any federal project shall include an interest |