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equitable apportionment would contribute more to harmony in the Colorado River Basin than a court- mandated settlement based on priorities. Interestingly, the cover letter that he sent to Hoover revealed more about Carpenter than the compact itself. "I am forwarding this to you," he said, "confidentially and purely as a personal matter. And I take the liberty of saying that I am prompted so to do out of a feeling of the deepest personal regard for you, sir. I am keenly appreciative of that underlying spirit of broad-minded fair play which you have exhibited. The sphere of my personal endeavors during the past 15 years has in a large measure isolated me in my own profession and has frequently provoked a feeling of extreme loneliness which at times has been almost overwhelming. But as our hearings have proceeded, your presence has prompted within me a sense of comradeship which now impels me to forward to you the enclosed draft in the hope that you may give it your most rigid scrutiny, mature thought and unstinted criticism." Hoover's response is not known. But it is clear from related correspondence that he was gaining confidence in Carpenter, and that both men were anxious to sign an agreement at the November meeting of the Colorado River Commission at Bishop's Lodge. As Carpenter said to Wyoming's Emerson, "We simply must use every endeavor to bring about the conclusion of a compact at the next meeting. Otherwise, we are badly exposed and may never again have a like opportunity. We have no assurance that the legislatures of the lower states will ever authorize another commission." In addition to the pressure of work, there were physical problems associated with meetings in Santa Fe. At that time, the lodge's proprietor had overbooked by about 50 percent. Commuting from town presented a real challenge. The road, which is not the present road, between Santa Fe and the lodge was described as a "switchback rollercoaster making an automobile cling so precariously to the steep sides of the landscape that the passage of a vehicle makes you think of a fly crawling over an eyebrow." Heat was not readily available. Everyone felt uncomfortable with the lack of privacy. Hoover refused to accept the status quo. He ordered the frustrated innkeeper to improve the conditions or he would move the commissioners to another hotel. Meanwhile, he ordered the Commission's secretary, Clarence Stetson, to thin the ranks. Stetson picked on the Californians. They had not complained about the conditions, living six and seven to a room. But he ordered some of them to leave - three decided to commute, the other four returned home in a cloud of bitterness. Ironically, Stetson's biggest fear about the Commission meeting at Bishop's Lodge was that the commissioners would be so comfortable that they would want to sit there indefinitely and would use this as an excuse for not coming to a speedy agreement. Meetings were held here in what Carpenter referred to as "semi-executive session" - each commis- sioner entitled to either an engineer or an attorney and some visitors, like myself, allowed to be present but not to participate. At no time did the commis- sioners meet totally in isolation. All the governors at one time or another were in attendance, six of whom were newly elected. This meant that six of the seven commissioners had been appointed by lame duck governors. It took Hoover considerable time on the tele- phone, but he succeeded in persuad- ing the newly elected heads of state to honor the credentials which had been issued by their predecessots. The 17 Santa Fe meetings began on November 9 and ended on November 24. Rather than detail all the arguments that took place or review the articles to which the commissioners agreed, I want to complete my commentary on Mr. Carpenter by touching briefly on the principal ideas which he brought to the table and which in some form were incorporated either in the writing or that long lost spirit of the Colorado River Compact. I want to talk about equity, time, Mexico, his paranoia towards the federal government and his belief that a compact had to be signed first before any works were built. First, equity. This was paramount in his thinking. Carpenter was committed to the common law doctrine of equitable apportionment as defined by the court in the Kansas decision. He believed that the seven sovereign states came to Santa Fe on equal footing with desires that required balancing against the needs and limitations of their peers. Much like the Hispanic system of water law, Carpenter's expectations were based on evaluating the unique circumstances on the entire Colorado River in such a way that an agree- ment would result, guaranteeing each state some part of what it wanted. But in addition to the legal parameters of equitable apportionment, Mr. Carpenter believed that permanent agreements could be attained only by treating one's fellow commission- THE SilVER FOX We have no assurance that the legislatures of the lower states will ever authorize another . . commIssIon. SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS MAY 1997 o