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Show is doing is not a comprehensive basin-wide job in the first place, and that the problem which would face the TVA, even if it undertook a truly comprehensive job in its own area, does not begin to encompass the field that must be covered in many of our great western river basins. Furthermore, neither in the Introduction nor elsewhere in its report does the Commission appear to give recognition to differences in conditions prevailing in different geographical areas. Under the heading "The economic responsibility of the Federal Government" (beginning on page 8 of the Volume I), the statement is made that: "It is not enough, from the point of view of the Federal Government, that a project be good; it must, in order to justify itself, be the best among alternatives." This statement would appear to result from the monstrous recommendations made to the Commission by the Engineer's Joint Council. On analysis, what it might mean, in effect, is that water resources programs would or should come to a halt while the Nation spends the next few decades in examining all proposed projects and in comparing them with one another to determine that which is best. In the Upper Colorado River Basin, however, since no alternative for the Colorado River Storage project and participating projects has been produced, it may well be that the Commission would say: Go ahead. The framework of principles upon which the Commission insists that it has proceeded is not, in all instances, compounded of principle so much as it is of catchwords or slogans. "One river, one plan" is an instance of this. Even the eminently conservative Herbert Hoover recognized that such a slogan might not be applicable to the Colorado River System. He held, on the contrary, that the Colorado River Basin is composed of two basins "varying in topography and being separated by a thousand miles of deep canyon." He held further that their "climate, crops, and use of water" were "different." The President's Commission suggests that the great objective of a sound national water resources policy is "The strengthening of our way of life on a more enduring basis." Fortunately for all, it breaks this down as follows: 1. The "provision of a secure and expanding natural resources base for an expanding national economy, and its development as a stimulus to the expanding needs of that economy." 2. The "development of the resources of the several -16- |