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<br />7 <br /> <br />own argument, he came close to a nervous breakdown. "I felt the crushing <br />weight of that litigation harder than ever before," he wrote. "My nerves <br />seemed to grip me and my hair turn white. I hate to go into it all again and <br />this time against the government as well. "34 Adding to the pressure he felt as <br />interstate streams commissioner, Nebraska had filed suit in Denver District <br />Court against Colorado in 1916, claiming a water shortage on the South Platte <br />River. 35 <br /> <br />Carpenter was ready for an alternative to litigation. The Nebraska suit <br />appeared politically motivated. He viewed the bill of complaint as essentially <br />a copy of the issues raised in Kansas v. Colorado. Further, the suit was state <br />funded and allegedly inspired by Attorney General Willis E. Reed, reportedly <br />the chief counsel for one of the Nebraska ditch companies and a man <br />interested in obtaining the nomination of his party to the United States <br />Senate.36 Stirring up a water war with Colorado might give him the publicity <br />and backers he needed to obtain his political goals. <br /> <br />Regardless of its supposed motivation, Carpenter took the suit seriously. <br />It was an attack on Colorado. It was war, indeed! It had the potential for <br />terminating Colorado's development through servitudes on the South Platte <br />River and tributaries west of the state line unless an interstate agreement could <br />be reached Consequently, Carpenter used every tactic he could muster over <br />the next seven years to persuade Nebraska's Commissioner R. H. Willis to <br />sign an interstate compact. His success and the experience Carpenter gained in <br />the process formed the basis for the Colorado River Compact and other <br />interstate water treaties in the West. In Carpenter's words, "The Colorado <br />River treaty [was] a subsequent understanding growing out of the preliminary <br />work upon the South Platte. In other words, the South Platte project [was] the <br />pioneer in this respect. "37 <br /> <br />The key for Carpenter was to prove to Willis that irrigation in Colorado <br />created a vast land sponge through which water gradually returned to the river <br />year around, making the South Platte a more constant and dependable source <br />for downstream Nebraskans, To make his case, Carpenter became a historian. <br />He searched old book stores, libraries and historical societies for early <br />