BOARD00983

• Board Meeting Date: 4/13/1966
• Description: Minutes and Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

::'U/b

MR. STAPLETON:

1-lR. SPARRS:

in this field and they state that if an excep-
tion is made, then the door is open. As Mr. .
Billhymer has aptly stated in his memorandum,
this is an insult to the intelligence of Con-
gress. Congress has always had to decide,
from year to year, what best promotes the
national interests. For anyone to say that
because this Congress allows 15 miles of water
to back into the far westerly edge of Grand
Canyon it is establishing a principle, is
completely absurd.

I

I'm SUre that we'll have the same flood
of testimony. We are already getting letters
from school children in Connecticut and other
places. The childrens' readers in Washington,
D. C. are being flooded with propaganda \~hich
bears little or no relationship to the actual
facts. "

"Did you get a lifetime subscription to
Reader's Digest?"

"I was asked if I'd like to go on the
Reader's Digest tour but I didn't want to
end up at the bottom of the canyon, so I
didn't go. We had a report from some of the
people who went, although not invited, such
as Congressman Udall, who were very rudely
treated. The Bureau of Reclamation had some
maps and photographs showing the proposed
dams and an attempt was made to remove them
from the meeting room. The unfortunate thing
is that many of these organizations have some
extremely intelligent people who have tried
to analyze the facts reasonably. We have
people here in Colorado'that I have talked to
who are some of the most sensible and reason-
able people that I have ever met with.

I

Once the pros and cons a~e in, then
people can make up their minds. The trouble
",ith the type of propaganda that is going out
is that it is a completely one-sided and
distorted presentation. We get letter after
letter saying that any kind of power is