The Coconino sun., 1922-03-31
RIGHTS OF ARIZONA
 ARE IN JEAPORDY

Up" the Jerome Verde News, has the following to say relative to the pro- posed plundering of Arizona's wealth:
 "The proceedings at the hearing last week before the Colorado river commission indicate beyond possibility of doubt that the interests of Ari- zona are in peril and that the people of the state must wake up to the ex- isting conditions unless they are pre- pared to stand aside and allow others to profit by the greatest undeveloped asset of the entire United States - the power and irrigation possibilities of the Colorado river.
 No one could sit through the hear ings without reaching the positive conclusion than an attempt is being made to shelve Arizona and Arizonas interests, and this in the face of the fact that the valuable part of the Colorado lies practically entirely with in the state and the sole possibility of power and irrigation development are inside the state and of right be- long to the state and it's people
 In the first place, it requires no technical or engineering skill to see that the development should begin northeast of the Grand Canyon rather than at its foot. By the construction of the Glen Canyon dam, the entire flow of the river will be controlled and immediate relief will be given the threatened districts of the Yuma and Imperial valleys. The Glen Canyon dam can be built at fraction of the cost of that of Boulder Canyon and there is behind it a storage capacity sufficient to hold three years normal flow of water if it should be neces- sary or desirable to do so.
 With the river thus controlled, the erection of the Boulder Canyon dam and reservoir becomes a simple mat flood danger. Instead of fighting the entire flow of the river, the builders of the Boulder Canyon structure will be working in minimum flow of wa ter, flow so small that it can be disregarded, practically speaking. Without such control, the builders of | the Boulder Canyon dam will have to contend with the entire flood problem and it is even questionable if the dam can be built at all under such condi- | tions. Those who have been in the state long enough will remember that the building of the Roosevelt dam on the Salt River was matter of great difficulty and that, more than once, the was danger of losing the entire structure from the floods in that in- significant stream. What would hap pen in the case of the tremendous floods in the Colorado backed by the impetus derived from the 2,000 foot fall between the locations?
 It is passing strange that secretary Hoover was carefully taken to the Boulder Canyon site and as carefully kept away from the Glen Canyon site. ''There's reason"
 The simple fact is, and of this there IS no possible doubt, that it is the de- sire of certain interests to conserve the Colorado not for the interests of Arizona or, for that matter, of the na- tion at large, but for the benefit of California and Mexico. These inter- ests care nothing for Arizona; they are deeply and vitally interested in Mexico. There they can envision great new empire - mostly of Asia tics - which can be made to yield them enormous profits. A couple of million of Japanese and Chinese set tied just over the line in Mexico would pay high prices for the land they would buy from the syndicates that now have titles to these lands. The men who own such lands - and they are mostly in California - would reap profits that are positively un- heard of in American history. And Arizona would suffer.
 Unless we are prepared to stand supinely by and see ourselves plum dered of priceless natural heritage, every man and woman in the state must make this personal matter and must take prompt action. The time to act is right now. Our senators and our representatives in congress should be advised of the facts and our gen. eral interests should be shown by let ters to Washington, by resolutions passed by every board of trade and chamber of commerce in the state and by every other means of securing the attention of the authorities.
 It may pay us to remember that if we allow this opportunity to slip, we will never have any chance to repair the error.
 There is little use in speculatinp as to how this combination against Ari- zona arose or why it was formed. We know that it exists and that unless It IS checkmated promptly, the state will be made "the goat" by selfish ! and antagonistic interests.o