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<br />million acres of lands along the Colorado River. This group, known as <br />the League of the Southwest, agreed that the veterans should be offered <br />lands' ready for planting. Consequently, they concluded, reclamation <br />projects would have to be completed as soon as possible.22 California <br />was anxious to have the Reclamation Service begin work immediately. The <br />state wanted a reservoir built at Boulder Canyon for flood control and <br />an All American Canal that would bring water to southern California <br />without passing through Mexican territory. Existing Colorado River <br />levees were considered extremely unstable. Another surge of water could <br />easily destroy them, repeating the 1905 flood of the Imperial Valley. <br />'As Colorado's Interstate Stream Commissioner, Carpenter met with <br />the League for the first time in Denver in August 1920. He knew that <br />the flood menace on the Colorado River was increasing annually, that if <br />the levees broke, the upper states would lose any control they might <br />have had for a negotiated settlement. He also agreed with Reclamation <br />Commissioner Arthur Powell Davis that there was sufficient water in the <br />Colorado River for all seven states, but past experience on the Rio <br />Grand~, North Platte, Arkansas, . Laramie, and South Platte rivers <br />convinced him that protection for the upper basin could only be achieved <br />through interstate compact. The slower developing headwaters states <br />needed assurance that sufficient water would be available for up to 200 <br />years, if necessary, so that agriculture and industry could develop <br />without having to accede to claims of water rights priorities in the <br />lower' basin.23 Davis assured Carpenter of his unqualified support for a <br />compact approach to the Colorado River. A resolution which emerged from <br />the D~nver meeting endorsed this principle and instructed the <br />legislatures of the seven states to select commissioners to begin <br />negotiations. <br />In May 1921 Carpenter accompanied the governors and their personal <br />representatives to Washington where they sought President Warren G. <br />Harding's approval for the compact plan. Harding assured them that if <br />Congress passed the appropriate legislation, he would appoint a federal <br />representative who understood both the international situation and the <br /> <br />10 <br />