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Show JANUARY ON CAPITOL HILL 87 Monument for you people so they won't build those dams in there.' 'Well,' I replied, 'that's certainly very nice of you, and I'm sure you are prompted by the best of motives, but did it ever occur to you that we might not want to be saved? As it so happens, we don't. We want to be dammed.' "While most of the Sierra clubbers made the entire trip, although the water was the lowest in years, some of them left the river at Island Park or Rainbow, rather than go through Split Mountain Canyon which has a couple of sockdolager rapids. Moonshine, the upper rapid, has its loss of life, and s.o.b. lower down has shared in disaster. For politeness sake, s.o.b. is pro- nounced 'sob,' as in cry, but when used by rivermen, has the same meaning given it by Harry Truman in speaking of music critics. When approaching such rapids it is too late to exclaim, 'O, mamma! Why did I ever leave home?' There is only one thing to do and that is to go on down the river. Making the run through the canyons is like marriage; you don't know what you're getting into until you make the trip. In all fairness to the river pilots, we gladly concede that these competent men know their business, and that anyone who likes this sort of thrill is probably in no more danger than in taking trips of other kinds. I, for example, still like to drag one foot on the ground when traveling by plane, yet it doesn't seem to bother a lot of people at all." It was plain that most of the committee members were not appreciative of Untermann's jokes. Chairman Harrison quickly changed the pattern of the presentation by calling some less gifted witnesses, such as state engi- neers, Upper Basin congressmen, private power special- |