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Show JANUARY ON CAPITOL HILL 75 William Henry Harrison, congressman from Wy- oming, direct descendant of two presidents, and western dude rancher, was chairman of the Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation of the House Interior Com- mittee. He took his seat on the morning of January 8, 1954, to preside at hearings on HR. 4449, the crsp bill. It was not a job Harrison would have chosen. Being the representative of a state that was one of the chief beneficiaries of the proposed project, he was, of course, a staunch supporter of it. He was fully aware of the fight in the offing, and he understood that the rulings he would be required to make would bring the wrath of either one side or the other down upon him. He could recall with sympathy the ordeal of Rep. Murdock of Arizona who had presided over the hearings on the Central Arizona Project, and had suffered an ignomi- nious defeat.82 The bill now before the committee was far more controversial than the Central Arizona Project legislation, involved much greater sums of money and several times as many states. Harrison's profound con- cern was reflected in his eyes and voice as he tapped his gavel at 9:35 a.m., and announced that the first witness would be Under-secretary of the Interior Ralph A. Tudor.83 The big room was packed, and for more than half an hour the crowd had been spilled out into the corridor of the New House Office Building. Jammed together in the seats and standing in the aisles were high officials of the Interior Department and the Reclamation Bureau, senators and representatives from half a dozen states, governors and other ranking state officers, water and power attorneys and engineers, and an impressive |
