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Show LAST LEGISLATIVE FIGHT 269 from the northwestern states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. California can develop an adequate and de- pendable supply of its own, without recourse to the waters of neighboring states. "There can be no doubt that the United Western Report is designed to keep the Reclamation Bureau's gigantic payroll forces operating regardless of the prac- ticality of the projects, regardless of whether some pro- jects are needed, and to turn the people of the North- west against California, on a project that is totally fantastic, unfair and extravagant in the sense that it would cost the taxpayers of this nation from four to seven billions for a completely unnecessary develop- ment." 389 Meanwhile, things weren't going well for McFarland and Murdock on the home front. They were obliged to explain why they had failed to obtain passage of the Arizona project. One of their excuses was that Congress had refused to approve it while the Korean war was in progress. But McFarland also blamed the failure in part on a lack of support from Arizonans, as the Phoenix Republic duly reported: 39° "Arizonans are not giving the Central Arizona Project bill the same enthusiastic support they did two years ago, Senator Ernest McFarland told members of the Central Arizona Project Association Wednesday. "McFarland declared: 'I find that the people of our state are somewhat discouraged, and are assuming a defeatist attitude. We are only in the second half of this football game, and if we are going to win we must keep up our courage.' " No lack of courage was displayed by Commissioner Straus and his staff. |