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Show 16 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER turity by designers of multiple Utopias whose ideas had nothing in common with basic economic or financial principles. (See Appendix c.) It may have been that neither President Eisenhower nor his poker-faced right bower, Sherman Adams, knew where Glen Canyon or Dinosaur National Park were, but that did not matter. The President could afford to leave geographical questions to his staff As for Adams, without even being certain of the location of the Colo- rado River, he could rub his hands in glee. It was in the United States, wasn't it? Well then, here was an unprecedented opportunity to show the West that the Republican Party was not only the papa of federal reclamation, but the greatest builder of all time. If anyone in the White House ever sought to learn whether the crsp was a feasible project, or whether the benefits to be derived from it were greater than the costs, the fact was not publicly disclosed. Perhaps some- one did ask the question, and upon receiving an answer understood the wisdom of keeping silent. The adminis- tration's blessing was given to the plan, and the hurrah- ing was heard through the Colorado Basin states, with the notable exception of California. California officials, especially the engineers and lawyers associated with the Colorado River Board, were appalled. If they could believe what they read, the crsp bills presented the greatest threat to California's rights in the Colorado River, and the greatest danger to the projects in which California taxpayers had in- vested billions of dollars, they had ever faced. A minor but aggravating and time-consuming en- gagement between California and the Upper Basin states was already underway in Congress over the |