Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-09-30
By RondoIph Leigh


Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson
has, in effect, reopened the debate on
reclamation. His recent notice to
aluminium producers in the North
west that they should "aS q defense
measure" be prepared to leave that
drought-stricken area already has
produced repercussions. What he says
about the Northwest will apply sooner
or later to the Southwest and the
whole Colorado Basin system. The
issue could be important in the next
election. It's military implications
are obvious.
There always have been skeptics
on modern reclamation. The i'm
portant thing in this case is that
top industrialist, looking at the prob
lem from strictly national view
point, has ignored politics and
pointed to facts. In recent years.
leaders in both parties have Stunned
the risk of ScrutiniZing reclamation.
The Eastern taxpayer, fascinated by
the idea of "the desert poisoning as
the rose," has never taken narrowly
regional viewpoint. This has been
particularly true since World War II
proved reclamation'S contribution to
war output. The trouble Is. we are
asking of the desert more roses than
it can produce. no matter how lavish
ly subsidized. The Wilson warning
means just that.
The West has one of the strongest
blocs in Congress and will doubtless
say that the solution is not in TAX
ing factories back East, but in rush.
ing plans for more water for the
West. However, even in the West
there are sharp divisions and jeal-
ousies, plus some doubts. -.
The strange thing is that the
United States entered upon its super
reclamation system-now the worlds
biggest-gingerly and almost by acct
dent. There had been small projects
over a period of several decades, but
what really started the ball rolling
was a relatively modest plan to pre-
vent floods in Imperial Valley and
to guarantee water for Los Angeles.
1t was to be self -liquidating project.
President Hoover, though a Cali
fornian, was critiged because of delay
in approving the project. He feared
that the plan was being pushed too
fast to take proper care of the
broader engineering and political
phases.
More Projects Than Water
The Colorado system now en-
visages some 100 projects with a
probable cost near $6 billion. The
original self liquidating plan has
vanished. Reclamation has become
the watchword in the West. and the
total cost of all proposed projects
would run into billions.
Not only has the financial basis for
reclamation changed, but the plans
for the projects themselves have far
outrun the basic resourSe itself,
namely, water. For instance, all the
proposed projects for the Colorado, if
realized, would require about 80 per
cent more water than falls there in
an average year. The same thing
applies to the Northwest in a more
specialized sense.
The Colorado River system is the
key to our reclamation problem be-
cause it affects war production far
more than the Northwest does, and
is even more vulnerable to drought.
The only thing that prevents the
water crisis there from being acute
today is that while far more water
has been allotted to each of the
Colorado Basin States than the river
can supply in the aggregate. only one
State now uses its full quota. But
the other States are rapidly piling up
population and factories to make use