Laserfiche WebLink
<br />4 <br /> <br />diminish sovereignty and undermine the principle of equal footing on which <br />all the states were admitted to the Union. The one axiom, consistent with the <br />spirit of comity, by which a compact should be negotiated, was that of <br />equitable apportionment. 16 In Carpenter's words, the doctrine of prior <br />appropriation as a policy for resolving interstate water conflicts was doomed <br />to failure, be<;ause it would "establish a labyrinth of servitudes immune from <br />the administration and sovereign jurisdiction of the streams from the States <br />and make servient the territory of each for the benefit of users beyond their <br />control. . . ."17 <br /> <br />More to the point of what Carpenter was reviewing in his mind as he <br />traveled eastward was a fear that if the federal government managed to build <br />any structures on the lower Colorado River "by virtue of which a preferred <br />right might be asserted by the lower states, a perpetual embargo would exist <br />upon the future development of the upper states, unless such development <br />were protected by the seven states signing a compact "18 His mission, <br />therefore, waS to persuade Congress and the President to allow the Colorado <br />River basin states to enter into compact negotiations that would provide for <br />the equitable apportionment of the Colorado River within the United States. <br />While the Court had not precisely defined what it meant by equitable <br />apportionment, Carpenter believed that "any river question could be settled by <br />any group of men with all the facts in their possession who are honestly bent <br />on reaching an agreement. . , . ,,19 Furthermore, he was optimistic and <br />motivated by the Supreme Court's latest interstate ruling (10 May 1921) in <br />which New York and New Jersey had been told to work on their mutual <br />problem through "diplomatic settlement," "cooperative study," "conferences," <br />and "mutual concessions. "20 A window of opportunity had appeared. When <br />Carpenter finally settled himself into Washington's Shoreham Hotel, he was <br />confident that his accumulated experience as rancher, irrigation farmer, public <br />servant and Colorado's interstate stream commissioner would serve him well <br />when he laid his plan before the President and Congress. <br /> <br />Father Leroy Carpenter had trained him properly. Having arrived in the <br />Union Colony in 1872 with an Iowa bride, Leroy soon learned the importance <br />of irrigation when his first crop failed because the ditches were not dug soon <br />