Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1921-12-30
LEAGUE OF THE SOUTHWEST SECY
 TELLS OF THE RIVERSIDE MEETING

the respective legislatures and the i Congress of the United States, it i% palpably a splendid move in the right direction of intelligent accord. Since the recent announcement that Secre- tarv of Commerce Herbert Hoover has been appointed Federal member of the commission, the hope has been inspired that his remarkable scientific financial, administrative and eXecu- tive abilities and his sense of inter- national proportions, presage far more comprehensive results from the work of this commission than was original ly anticipated. There seems to be complete agreement in the minds of thinking people that the ultimate sol ution of the Colorado river problem lies in the study of the project as
 a whole, from the Rockies to the Gulf of California, involving local, state, interstate, international, flood control, irrigation, power, economic, indus trial, technical and professional prob lems, which must be submitted for arbitration to board of qualified per sons as eminent in the esteem of the nation as MT. Hoover; and everything seems to indicate that such board ultimately will be created by the Con- gress of the United States.
 In the meantime, however, it is re- ported that at the recent meeting of the League, Colorado's commissioner, Delph E. Carpenter, again suggested the dissolution of the League, and in common with other Commissioners, expressed irritation over the fact that any organization should function so that popular sentiment might exert an influence upon the conclusions of the Colorado River Commission. This point of view is not novel in certain quarters. Those who hold this view honestly believe that small group of gentlemen gathered around com fortable table far from the maddening crowd can function much more effec- lively upon a problem like the Colo rado river than an organization like the League of the Southwest, which, in the classic words of Dr. R. B. von KleinSmid, is dedicated to the busi- ness of providing an absolutely inn partial, unbiased and non-partisan forum, which is open, where the Southwest may gather occasionally to discuss such problems of paramount interest like the Colorado river. It is matter in which there has been a fair difference of opinion for many centuries. Those who believe in the
 principle upon which the League of
 the Southwest is founded hold that
 only by the weight and momentum of an aroused, enlightened and intelli-
 gent public sentiment will it ever be possible properly to develop the re-
 sources of the Colorado river, no mat ter who does the developing. Those who are in agreement with the people who agitate the dissolution of the
 League believe that action in great : movements like the development o1
 the Colorado river may be obtained most effectively by means of quiet cloistered unobtrusive conferences. Il is essentially the age old conflict be, tween the Divine Right of Kings anc
 the New England Town Meeting. Alp, . parently, judging by the worldwide | popularity of MT. Wilson's dicta, anC . public sentiment concerning the re, cent Disarmament Conference, the doctrine of "open covenants openly , arrived at" is very popular.
 The attack upon the League has ; cleverly centered upon the most vul, nerable aspect of it's internal organ. ization. The unlimited multiple-unit membership plan is not equitable nol consonant with the purposes of such an organization as the League. It
 was forced upon those who drew the constitution five years ago by the . financial eXigencies of a new and struggling organization. Although it
 has ben charged variously that the
 League is an instrument of the Power Corporations or of the Public Enter prise partisans it is happily true that
 those in charge of it's work have never knowingly allowed the multiple unit membership to be used in the interest of one or the other of the many factions. It is, however, easy to perceive that this ordinance of the Constitution opens the way for fatal abuses. The organization has out grown the temporary circumstances that dictated the multiple-unit mem bership expedient. Therefore, by the orderly means provided in the Consti-
 tuition, the instrument should be properly amended, and it is hoped
 such amendment will be made at the next business meeting of the League It is your League and it is therefore
 your business to say how it shall func.