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Show BANANAS ON PIKE'S PEAK 219 Both were for the crsp. This did not mean, however, the crsp would be railroaded through as it had been in the Senate committee. Quite the reverse was true. There were strong enemies of the crsp on the House committee. Twelve scattered days would be spent in intense and often bitter wrangling, and months would pass before a final decision could be reached. More- over, there were five similar crsp bills before the House committee. Thus, the work of digestion was far more difficult than it had been in the Senate, and the burps came with more frequency.268 Aspinall got the hearings underway on the morning of March 9, 1955, only four days after the conclusion of the Anderson-Watkins gala in the Senate. This did not give the witnesses much time to rest between shows, but they were all on hand, and one might have had the impression that another performance of the same old drama was being presented under a different roof. That illusion, however, would have been quickly dis- pelled when the taking of testimony began. The going was rough from the start, and political cabbages, rotten eggs and dead cats flew about the stage and sometimes struck persons in the audience. For the first time in the memory of anyone present, a Congressman was rendered speechless. This memor- able event occurred when Rep. Pillion of New York was questioning Commissioner of Indian Affairs Emmons, a rabid supporter of the Navajo Project, which would provide farms for eleven hundred Indian families. The colloquy follows: 269 Pillion: uMr. Commissioner, do you have an esti- mated cost of the Navajo Project?" Mr. Emmons: "Our Navajo irrigation engineer does, yes, sir." |