Arizona state miner., 1927-02-05
At ! AsftasGk5APITAL e


Lines of cleavage that may spread
farther and open wider begin to ap-
pear as the Eighth Arizona Legislature
nears the half way mark of its regular
session.
News from Washington that the
Swing-Johnson Boulder Canyon dam
bill probobly will fail at the present
short session of Congress brings nome
the importance of consolidating the
public opinion of the state on some one
definitely stated and generally ac-
cepted policy of Colorado river legls-
lation that will enable Arizona to enter
new negotiations with known goal
in sight. And unfortunately the old
division of opinion between Governor
Hunt and the legislature on this ques-
ton has cracked wide open again.
In the house, the Governors Los
Angeles commission of three, consist
ing of H. S. McCluskey, Tom Mad
dock and John L. Gust, is under
constant skirmish fire of person
alities and backbiting. That happens
to be a matter of no great immediate
consequence, because the commission
will go out of office, on March 3, but
the senate has drawn up its forces
in formal battle array and is digging
in for a long siege.
= What the senate has an eye to is
not the temporary fortunes of the Los
Angeles commission, but the compost
ton of the permanent commission to
which will be entrusted the policies
of Arizona for the next two years,
after the legislature has gone home.
BluntIy and doggedly the senate says:
I'VE want control of Cnat commission
to rest with this legislature.
Downstairs the Governor says Il
want an equal voice in the affairs
and the decisions of the commission
If the legislature sends me any other
kind of a bill, l shall veto it"
Should anything unfortunate hap
pen the situation would be right back
where it was two years ago. The
Governor, of course, would win He
would have a commission, not so per
cent but 100 per cent of his own
choice.
1t is still open for either the gov
ernor or the legislature to recede.
Nothing like a deadlock yet exists.
The same question was up once before
and the governor broke ground. Tech
nically the Arizona Commission OPP
posed to the Swing-Johnson Bill, now
at Washington, was appointed by the
governor Actually, he named two Of
the six members and the legislature
the other four.
Conceivably, the same artifice might
be employed again, but the outlook
is not hopeful
"The Governor" said Senator Sut-
ter, ''has had his chance for the last
four years Nothing whatever has
been accomplished and, if we defer
again, nothing better need be ex-
pected from the future.
"It is the duty of this legislature,
said Senator Donnelly, "to take up and
carry forward the responsibilities
which events have brought to its
threshold. We are told that if we
pass such a bill as a majority of this
senate favors, the governor will veto
it. Undoubtedly, he has that privilege.
l am perfectly willing he should ex-
ercise it if he wishes and take the
consequences"
quite possibly" said Senator Jones,
author of the disputed bill, this meas
ure may be the only piece of con-
structive legislation that this session
will enact AS the senate knows, it
proposed in its original form that the
legislature should have the prepon-
derant voice in the permanent COM
10 I~0 oh OF
prefer that to be the outcome. But
we also know that, if such a bill is
enacted, the governor will veto it.
/ would rather see the bill amended to
give the governor an equal voice than
to force the bill into discard
Senator Kimball closed the debate.
81 have been toId,,' he shouted; that
the governor hasn't the backbone to
veto this bill"
Disdain was in his voice. He paused
to let it rankle, and then hurled his
challenge.
"Try him and see," he taunted.
The bill on which the issue turns
was introduced early in the special
session by Senator Dan P. Jones of
Maricopa, who described it as a COM
promise measure, purely of his own
creation. He had shown it to the
governor, he said, and been told that
it would encounter no executive op
position, but it was in no sense an
administration bill.
Except for minor alterations of
phraseology, the bill came out Of COM
mittee intact in it's essentials. 1t pro-
poses a commission of ten, consist
ing of the Governor, the president of
the senate and the speaker of the
house, as ex-officio members; three
members appointed by the governor
two from the senate and two from the
house. Including his own vote, that
would give the governor four and
the legislature six.
In committee Of the whole, Senator
Bettwy, Santa Cruz, proposed an
amendment increasing the number of
the governors appointees to five, thus
giving him six votes, an even division.
sET only want tO give the governor