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Show 280 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER The defendants named in the Arizona motion were the state of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, City and County of San Diego. The United States, as California had always main- tained, was a necessary party to such an action, and Arizona had at last agreed. Before filing the suit, Ari- zona attorneys had secured an understanding with the Department of Justice that if the court took the case the United States would ask permission to intervene. On October 13, 1952, the court issued an order to show cause, and California was given sixty days to make a return. It was on December 8, 1952, that California told the court it wanted the case to proceed "to an effective judgment on its merits." On election day of November, 1952, the coup de grace had been given to the empire-building dreams of the Reclamation Bureau. Hardly had the administration of President Eisenhower taken office before it was an- nounced that the resignations of Secretary Chapman, Commissioner Straus and other high officials of the Interior Department would be accepted. The Western Web, as they had conceived and spun it, was swept away. On January 19, 1953, the Supreme Court accepted jurisdiction in the case of Arizona vs. California, and granted the United States leave to intervene. After more than three decades of fighting, the Colo- rado River controversy had reached the threshhold of |