The Coconino sun., 1923-02-23
Los ANGELES LOBBY
EXPEDITION A FAILURE

w. B. Mathews, the $12,000-a-year
special counsel Of the board of public
service commissioners and southern
California campaign manager forI
United States Senator Hiram Johnson,
and President Criswell of the City,
Council, have returned from their
mysterious lobbying trip to Washing
/ ton, where they worked against rat1-
fication by the government and by
| the Arizona legislature of the Colora-
do river compact by which the river
will be developed and controlled for
the benefit of the entire southwest.
All of the southwestern states have
approved or will ratify the compact, /
except Arizona, which is still IN
doubt. 1t is charged by friends of the
compact that secret agents of the Los
Angeles Bureau Of Power and Light, |
which has for years worked for a
100000, 900 Los Angeles built dam at
Boulder Canyon on the Colorado Rlv-
er, have worked under cover in Ari- |
zona to prevent that state from
swinging into line. 1t was the act
ivities Of these Los Angeles agents,
according to editorials in Arizona
newspapers received in this city, that
have created in the minds of many /
members Of the Arizona Legislature
that. there is a "nigger in the wood
pile" and that the best way to prevent
Los Angeles from monopolizing the
benefits of Colorado River develop
ment would be to kill the present
compact and prepare new one. This
result would nightly please the Los
Angeles Bureau of Power and Light, /
which in the event of Arizona failing
to ratify the pact, would send dele |
cation to Washington and say to
congress: "See! There will be no Col
orado river development by the
southwestern states. They cannot
agree. Let Los Angeles build a dam
at Boulder Canyon, for have we not
on our soard DR. John r. Haynes, I
than whom there is no whomer as an
electrical engineer, physician, polite
ian, municipal ownership advocate and
craftsman of city charters containing
lall of the latest fads- and fancles IN /
city governmental machinery that the
world has ever heard of and some that T
the doctor has thunk up himself?'
The taxpayers of Los Angeles, of
Washington in favor of municipal
ownership of other peoples assets,
all of which have been a failure so
far as securing approval for the
Haynes dam at Boulder Canyon. Last
summer, delegation from the public
service department went to Washing
ton and did some plain and fancy lob
bying at the taxpayers expense. Rec
ords at the city hall show that for this I
trip last summer President Criswell I
turned in an expense account OF
S387.45, Chief Electric Engineer Scats I
tergood's expenses were $574.57, and (
S5O4 98 for S. B. Robinson, an attor-
ney in private practice in this city
and a friend and former law partner
of Chief Counsel Mathews. Mr.. Rob- I
inson is employed almost constantly /
bv the power bureau at S47.50 a day, |
with $50 for each day that he goes
to court for the bureau. All Of these
bills were approved by the public SER
vice commission and paid by the pow I
er department. Expense accounts for +
the Criswell- Mathews recent trip have (
not as yet reached the city hall, but
they will be paid by the public service
department before the vouchers finally
reach the City Auditors office.
Both President Criswell and Mr.. /
Mathews have been most reticent
about their trip to Washington, Pres
ident Criswell even being gfarn and
pessinistic of ever permanently I
throwing the hooks into the federal
governments intention OF developing
the Colorado river for the benefit of
A. or4,,a eo,,4I,x.roc+
"Hard trip said President Girls
well Yesterday. Cant we get con-
gress interested in anything but reg
ular appropriation bills and routine
business z"
In other words, it would appear that
congress simply could not see Los An
geles gobbling up the Colorado river
and peddling electric power created
at the Boulder Canyon dam to the
rest Of the southwestern states, coun-
ties and cities, at whatever rates the
city decided upon. Also, it may be
Judged that the Mathews -Criswell eA-
pedition did not receive much applause
Mhen they attempted to discredit Sec
.etary of Commerce Hoover, who has
d1 canned, hoped, planned and worked
ceaselessly fol the governments de-
veloping the Colorado river fol-. the
benefit of the entire southwest, both
in controlling and storing the waters
for agricultural and irrigation puT-
poses and for the generating of hydro
electric energy from the river for the
use on an equal basis by all south
western communities.
Speaking of the work of the Los
Angeles power and light officials and
agents and other Los Angeles misrep-
resentatives against ratification by
Arizona Of the compact, the Arizona
Republican, a leading Phoenix news
paper, says editorially: ut makes no
difference to Los Angeles by what
agency the compact has been defeated,
lust SO it has been destroyed Ever
SINCE the compact became an issue we
have been trying to convey some 1dea
Of the danger from this source--the
zeal and only danger Of permanent
injury to Arizona--the Vaccinations
of Los Angeles to secure monopoly