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Show DOLLARS INTO DUST 251 "Then, while this is being done, the administration plan, as voiced by the President, calls for the develop- ment, at enormous cost, of a million more acres in two fantastic irrigation schemes. "Obviously, no 'bank' could operate efficiently or profitably under such a plan. "In this case, while the nation's farmers were 'de- positing' their acres in the front of the bank, the bank's officials would be making bad investments in the back room." By playing ball with the Upper Basin states, Rep. Engle of California had got his Trinity Project. It had been forced through Congress over strong opposition. Engle had kept his bargain by giving his support to the crsp. As ranking Democrat on the House Interior Committee, he was influential. Next to him in com- mand was Aspinall of Colorado. They had been con- vinced in the fall of 1955 that the House would never approve the crsp bill unless Echo Park Dam was perma- nently removed from it. They felt even stronger in this respect in January, 1956. When and if the bill passed, both of them would serve as conferees with managers of the Senate in the work of adjusting the differences in the two versions of the legislation. So that there would be no question as to their positions, they announced that they would never permit Echo Park Dam to be rein- stated in conference. During January, 1956, several meetings between con- servationist executives and the bill managers from both houses of Congress took place. On January 25 it was disclosed that the conservationists had been completely victorious in their long and bitter fight to save Dinosaur. |