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OC1262 ARKANSAS RIVER COMPACT 43 General KRAMER. Yes, sir. Mr. MURDOOK. In other words, no changes suggested here would require action on the gart of the legislatures j General KRaMER. No, indeed. Mr. BARRETT.. The legislative certified copies filed here are identical with the changes that you have made j General KRAMER. That is correct. Unfortunately, the State printer of Kansas has individual ideas about punctuatIOn, but that is quite immaterial, and, for purposes of identity, the changes which I have suggested will make the Senate bill, the House bill, the compact as signed, and the bills ratifying the compact all one and the same. Mr. MURDOOK. Are there any further q.uestions of General Kramer j Mr. BARRETT. General, what about thIS John Martin Dam that the Army engineers constructed out there j Are the engineers still build- ing dams under that arrangement j General KRAMER. I do not qualify as a representative of the Corps of Engineers since I am no longer in active service. But, of course, the-authorization of projects for the Corps of Engineers, past, present, and future, is always ~overned by the policies of the Congress, which change from time to tIme. . . At the time this dam was authorized-and I refer to Caddoa Dam later called the John Martin Dam, and the same applies to Conchas Dam in the State of New Mexico-the only requirement placed upon local interests was that they furnish the right-of-way for the proJect, agree to maintain and operate the completed structure and save the United States from damages resulting from the construction of the project. Those were the conditions upon which John Martin Dam a.nd Conchas Dam were originally authorized. Those conditions, if I may mdulge in a little retrospect, were governed by the then existing circumstanc,es of a serious depression ",nd unemployment. That was the time when irrigation ditches, as many of you gentlemen !mow, were practically defunct, and in many cases were' having difficulty in makmg ends meet. It was hopeless to place upon loeal interests any great burden of financial eontribution to a Federal project. . Indeed, in the case otConchas Dam and, for all.practical purposes, in the case of Caddoa Dam, the basic eonsideration for this authori' zation at the time was to relieve unemployment. Conchas Dam actually was started as a WP A project. Caddo a Dam was started not as a WP A project, but under the same set of conditions. That was at a tIme when, as I say, there Wilsnot a policy of the Congress to place undue burdens upon loeal interest<;. That eon- dition was recognized in subsequent legislation ~hich speeific:,lly exempted those structures or those projects prevIOusly authoTIzed from subsequent repayment conditions. Now, that is the history. I am not attempting to justify or to read anything in the peoples' minds. Those are the facts as they relate to it, and the condItions you .asked about. And I hope that answers your question. Mr. BARRETT. It certainly does, General Kramer. I have wondered sometimes, however, about the extension of that principle because I have thought that the Army engineers had sought and obtained authority to construct dams in the Central Valley m California, and . 1 /