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<br />002778 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />r <br /> <br />It is a pleasure to come before the Missouri Basin Inter- <br /> <br /> <br />Agency Committee and report to you the efforts being made by the <br /> <br /> <br />State of Colorado to recodify its water laws. <br /> <br /> <br />It is a pleasure for several reasons: <br /> <br /> <br />In the first place, I enjoy discussing a matter of this kind <br /> <br /> <br />with a knowledgeable group, one that can fairly be said to be objec- <br /> <br /> <br />tive in its consideration of the very important matters involved. <br /> <br /> <br />Nothing I am going to say nor anything that the Colorado committee <br /> <br />proposes will in any way affect any personal water right of your <br /> <br />own. I therefore feel somewhat more secure than I have been in <br /> <br />appearances before groups of farmers, each of whom, I am sure, felt <br /> <br /> <br />that I had personal confiscatory designs on his particular source <br /> <br /> <br />of water. And I need tell none of you in this audience that water <br /> <br /> <br />rights in Colorado and each of the states in the Missouri Basin <br /> <br /> <br />must be spoken of reverently and tenderly. <br /> <br />In the second place, I can speak freely. The draft the com- <br /> <br />mittee has been permitted to circulate only in a very limited <br /> <br />fashion is only a draft, and the committee members know that. <br /> <br />They have no particular pride of authorship and are prepared to <br /> <br />have their work rejected in whole or in part, so that I am not now <br /> <br />either prepared or inclined to fight, pleed or die for any particu- <br /> <br />lar word, phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or principle. <br />