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<br />-5- <br /> <br />enaotments and a.liberal oonstruotion thereof' by judicial decrees, <br />as a means of' imposing oomplete federal oontrol of water resouroes <br />in disregard of applioablestate water laws." <br /> <br />People of' Coloradol People of' all the West& Take heed and defend your <br />homes and your rights as Amerioans. <br /> <br />This threat oan be met, Immediate aotion must be taken to foroe a modifi- <br />oation or amendment. If'the lower river states in the rain belt need suoh pro- <br />jeots, we favor them. But let us divoroe the upper rivers and impose no re- <br />stricti on upon their present uses. ' <br /> <br />Write your Congressional delegati ons, Send no f'orm letters or petitions. <br />State your oase in your own way. Prevent this enoroaohment upon the rights of <br />Amerioan oi tizens. Save our western way of' life. <br /> <br />KLZ - Saturday, Deoember 11, 1943 <br /> <br />People. of' Colorado, This is a warning given by a oitizen of' this state <br />against a threat to our way of' lif'e..-of a danger to our rights as .AJnerioans-- <br />to our first great industry. <br /> <br />In the last days of October representatives of the seventeen semi-arid states <br />of' the West met in Denver. They adopted the report of' a speoial oommittee <br />oharged with the duty of' f'onnulating a polioy f'or the preservation of existing <br />rights in the f'uture developroont of' the agrioultural greatness of' the West by <br />the proteotion of' their use of irrigation water. <br /> <br />A statement of' prinoiples was made announoing that the oontrol. regulation <br />and utilization of' water in the semi-arid states make domestio oonsumption and <br />growing orops the highest users of' water) and that on projeots designed- for multi- <br />ple uses or the' development of' power, domestio and irrigation needs shall be <br />paramount to the requirements of' hydroeleotrio energy produotion. <br /> <br />And then it was boldly stated that the imposition of Federal regulation <br />under the Commeroe Clause of' the United States Constitution to maintain navi- <br />gable ca~city and to regulate f'loods on the lower reaohes of rivers having <br />their souroes in the arid and semi-arid region, should reoognize the naximum <br />use of water f'or irrigation purposes. <br /> <br />Almost before the governors and attorneys general, the state engineers and <br />water oonsultants and the f'armers and the livestock men who attended that meet- <br />ing had reaohedtheir separate homes, those deolarations were ohallenged. <br /> <br />A . bill was introduoed into the Senate on November 9th whioh if' emcted iuto <br />law may destroy everything whioh the Reolamati on Assooiation was organized to <br />protect and preserve. It is to-be known as the Arkansas-White River Basin Aot <br />and proposes to oonstruct and. operate dams, reservoirs- and allied structures on <br />those two rivers and their tributar1eQ under the direotion of' the Seoretary of' <br />War and the supervisi on .. of' the Chie r of' Engineer.. <br /> <br />