The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-10-20
Downey's Case Against Reclamation
Head CoIlapses AT Committee Hearing

EsV0W VVEses ssSSS Hs
Washington LPA) = California
Sen. Sheridan Downey's long cam
paign against Michael Straus, Re-
clamation Commissioner, and the
Reclamation Bureaus policies on
public power collapsed in his face
this week when his chief witness
former Reclamation Commission
er Harry Bashore -refu e d
Downey's charges.
Bashore, whose story was the
backbone of Downey's whole case
against Straus and against Richard
Boke, regional director in Cali
fornia, strongly supported both
men in his testimony before the
Senate investigating committee
headed by Sen. Joseph c. O'Ma-
honey Cd, Wyo.).
Under a rigid examination from
O'Mahoney, who is a friend of
both Bashore and Straus, the
former Commissioner denied Dow
ney's charges that he had been
forced out of the job as Reelama-
tion Commissioner to make way
for Straus, and lauded Boxes work
as regional director.
Testifying under oath at Dow
ney's request, in a showdown on
the long and bitter fight between
Downey and Straus, Bashore said
he had been glad to turn the job
over to Straus because he, Bashore,
had wanted to get out.
Downey for years had used
Straus and Boke as his whipping
boys in an attempt to do away with
the "160-acre limitation" contain
ed in the Reclamation Act of 1908,
when Theodore Roosevelt was pre-
sident, which says:
"No right to the use of water
for land in private ownership shall
be sold for a tract exceeding 100
acres to any one land owner, and
no such sale shall be made to any
landowner unless he be an actual
bona-fide resident on such land, or
occupant thereof residing in the
neighborhood of such land"
Owners of huge tracts of land in
California's Central Valley have
backed the Senator in his fight to
eliminate the protection of small
landowners, and to give them un-
disputed sway over great and po-
tentially rich agricultural proper
ties.
Downey tried desperately, in a
long crosse examination, to refute
Bashore's testimony, but the form
er official stuck to his guns. He adj
mitted he had praised Downey's
book "Thev Rule the Valley, but
said that did not mean he approved
everything in it. He admitted he
had been irked at times at political
pressures within the Interior Dept,
but he insisted that:
He had appointed Boke because
he was the best man available for
the job, not because the appoint
ment was forced on him.
He would have preferred an en-
gineer, but no qualified engineer
was available at the time.
Boke had turned out "much bet
ter" that he expected and had
"done a very good job" Criticism
of him centered on his administra-
tion of the "160-acre limitation"
which was law enacted by Congress
and not Boxes personal policy.
He, Bashore, had taken the job
as Commissioner of Reclamation
against his own better judgment
and his wife's wishes. He began
Immediately looking for a success
or. but the two best bets turned
it down. One of them was Milton
Eisenhower, brother of the famous
general. Finally, Straus, then AS
sistant Secretary of Interior, sug-
gested he might take the job. Bas-
hore said "that's fine" and got out,
He did not believe the Commits
sioner needed to be an engineer, as
Downey contended and as Congress
once decided in order to force out
Straus and Boke, because the
qualification for the job was busi-
ness experience.
O'Mahonev read Downey's testi-
mony that Bashore had appeared
in his office, crying that he loved
his job and was being forced out
by "the political manipulations of
Straus and his associates"
81 don't recall crying since my
mother spanked me-" Bashore re-
piled. al don't recall telling him OF
anyone else was a beaten man
and loved the job"
"Did you ever express the be-
lief you were being forced out"
O'Mahoney asked.
81 don't recall it," Bashore re-
piled. "If | had ever expressed that
Thought II Uould have been to the