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Show 148 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER In the best interests of the nation, Congress should hold up the Upper Basin Storage Project until the Hoover Commission has had time to complete its report on water resources policy. Rep. Hosmer had the council's report printed in booklet form and presented one to every member of Congress. This presentation was followed by a new study by the engineers of the Colorado River Board showing the crsp would increase the national debt by $4 billion, and that the tax subsidy would amount to about $5,500 per acre. In the case of the Navajo Pro- ject, which the administration had sought to jettison, the subsidy would be $11,000 an acre.164 Watkins came out of his corner swinging. In wild oratory on the Senate floor he attacked the "vicious" 165 campaign being carried on by the Colorado River As- sociation of California to steal the whole Colorado River. His next target was Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.166 The widow of the President had suggested in her nationally syndicated column that people write to the Sierra Club for information about the Echo Park Dam controversy. She agreed with the club's view that it would be better to have an unspoiled national monument than two dams. Watkins was surprised that a person of Mrs. Roosevelt's intelligence and integrity would be taken in by propaganda arguments that had been fully dis- credited.166 A student of legislative processes and political influ- ence might have done well to consider the crsp battle as an excellent illustration, throwing light on the often dark and deceptive channels that wind their way through the congressional jungle. While the controversy in a general sense might have been termed "regional,'^ |