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Show -75- Mr. Parker. At that meeting an agreement was reached and representatives of the States signed a draft of a ccmpaot to be submitted to their legislatures, and it was signed by me as having participated as a representative of the United States* Following that action, the final draft was submitted to all of the Federal agencies concerned with water in the Republican River Basin. A formula for composing Federal and State interests was devised at the Lincoln meeting. The major difficulty faced in the negotiations was to provide some sort of means, which within constitutional limitations and within the limitations that the President had indicated he would approve, might be accept- able to the States. An essential objective of the formula was to assure the States, and those establishing water rights for irrigation and domestic use under the laws of tine States, that Federal programs and projects undertaken in accordance with Federal jurisdiction would take into account the best and most economical use of the water for multiple purposes and would recognize established uses for irrigation and domestic purposes as property rights. How this objective could be obtained through a ccanpaot without encroaching upon or impairing Federal jurisdiction was not easy of solution. The device finally accepted by the States appears in the provisions of article XI. I be- lieve you are familiar with those* If you are not, I will be glad to read th.em. Senator McCarran. Your whole report will £0 into the record and that will be a part of it. Mr. Parker. I was expecting you would want to do that, yes» The propriety of legislation by Congress of the kind proposed, is, I believe, in conformity with procedures heretofore employed by Congress, when it has im- posed certain limitations on the Federal Power Commission, which providet That nothing herein contained shall be construed as affecting or in- tending to affect or in any way to interfere with the laws of the respective States relating to the control, appropriation, use, or distribution of water used in irrigation or for municipal or other uses, or any vested right acquired therein. Of somewhat the same character are the provisions of the act of June YJ* 1902, governing the Department of the Interior in its reclamation activities. I quote from that actj That nothing in this act shall be construed as affecting or intencLed to affect or to in any way interfere v/ith the laws of any State or terri- tory relating to the control, appropriation, use or distribution of water used in irrigation, or any vested ri^ht acquired thereunder, and the Se- cretary of the Interior, in carrying out the provisions of this act, sliall proceed in conformity vith such laws* and nothing herein shall in any way affect any right of any State or of the Federal Government or of any land- owner, appropriator, or user of water in, to, or from any interstate s-tream |