.

"The Colorado River Compact," to be ratified by the Legislatures of the seven states. Six states ratified it, including California. Arizona did not and has not yet ratified it. Now that compact and that is a long story and I will have to skip over it pretty rapidly-that compact has certain provisions in it that needs very, very careful study, and which provisions convinced a good many people in California, especially those who had the best water rights, that it was somewhat doubtful, at least debatable, whether California ought to ratify that compact as presented for this reason: That compact divides the basin into two parts: California, Arizona and Nevada as the lower basin states, and the other as the upper basin states, and it divides the water of the Colorado River between those two groups of states, but it does not divide the water between the states. And there is the rub as far as Arizona is concerned. It says: The upper basin states shall be entitled to 7,500,000 second feet of water, acre feet of water; the lower basin states the same. And then it adds a million, presumably, for the Hila river, and it says that, once five million acre feet of water storage is provided, that all of the vested rights of the people in southern California, including the Imperial Valley irrigationists, that all their vested rights shall cease and merge in that storage. Now, it was the small amount of storage that worried and frightened the Imperial Valley people. They are no different from what we are. I have noticed that Long Beach, through its papers, as expressed in editorials in the last six months, is afraid of what may happen to certain developments upon the San Gabriel river on account of this new dam that we propose to put in up at this portion of the map. (Indicating on map.) My city of Riverside had a lawsuit with our neighboring city of San Bernardino, twelve miles away from us, which lasted for seven years, and then

we got a decision that meant nothing and was wholly unsatisfactory. And as I have said many times before, then we had a two bit lunch over at the neutral city of Colton, met around the table like brothers, and we solved our problem there in about an hour and a half, and wrote up a stipulation of our own and went up to the court, and told them to enter that stipulation, that we had settled the case, and we have had peace ever since. But we spent two hundred thousand dollars in that lawsuit needlessly. We could have done lots of things with that $200,000. It is foolish for us, as communities, to scrap these things out before we have made an attempt to settle them between ourselves, meeting together as intelligent men.

It is just so with this project on the Colorado River. Now then, it defines the basin, as to area of the Colorado River, or any place where the water of the Colorado river can be taken. And already they are building or starting to build a tunnel toward Denver which takes a portion of the river outside of the drainage area. And in this compact is this provision that at intervals of every ten years, the upper basin states shall let pass, at this point (indicating on map) 7,500,000 acre feet of water. Now this is what that means: It means that the upper basin states would let their water down in wet years, and they would not let it down in dry years. They are not developed, agriculturally or industrially, as our country is developed. And we are still growing. Look ahead now twenty years, that is not very far distant, and if the upper basin states are then developed as we are now, we will be a hundred per cent ahead at that time-but if they are developed in twenty years as we are now, and it were physically possible for them to use that water, not one drop of the flow of the water of the Colorado River would come below the Boulder Canyon, and these

vested rights in southern California. would only be getting water out of storage. Now, that is a pretty serious proposition to face. And a situation like that must mean big storage. There has been some talk of a low dam at a point down near Needles.

That is absolutely absurd,

from the standpoint of utility to the people of southern California.

And here comes in another problem, that of domestic water. Now, locally, most of our communities are quite well supplied now, but there is no reason at all to doubt and it is not a dream— but that southern California will be populated just as thickly as we can water our people, inside and out. And that will be our measure of growth, and when we have reached the ultimate supply of water that will be our stopping place. You have not the rainfall, and you have not the storage capacity in your mountains for domestic water, sufficient to supply all the people that will want to come and that will be in southern California in the next twentyfive years. So, unless you go to some other source, different from what you have locally, we will reach an impasse in regard to water supply. We have, in the artesian basin of San Bernardino County, perhaps as fine and as abundant and as powerful a subterranean storage reservoir as there is in this state. I have seen every one of those wells put down, and they were flowing wells. But we are drawing upon them now from thirty to fifty per cent more than the water is being replenished, and if it were not for the work done by the three counties of Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside, in storing the flood waters on the free cone of the Santa Ana river, our artesian basin would be very largely overdrawn.

Now, these underground storage basins, are measurable just like a cylinder in the chemist's laboratory, and we know how much there is in this basin. And with

that knowledge, we also know that it is absolutely necessary for us to go to some other source for an additional supply of water. Now why do I say that with such positiveness when, as an individual, I do not know it? Well, I am not an engineer, but I base that statement upon the testimony that I have heard given in Washington by men like the learned Stanford professor, as to the quantity of water, as to the ability to store it, and as to the cost of electricity for pumping it. I base it upon the repeated statements of Mr. William Mulholland who has been to Washington twice, and whom I have talked with many, many times. I have sat down with him and said, "Now, Mr. Mulholland, I am going out with other men before the people of the state of California, to present this problem. I want to be sure of that which I say. I want the right to quote and use your name that you make this statement, and that you say that there is no other place for southern California to go for domestic water except the Colorado River, if we are to meet our ultimate destiny." And Mr. Mulholland says that, and I have his permission to quote him. Mr. Arthur P. Davis, Professor Southerland and six or eight other men of that caliber say the same thing. And in them I lay my faith and base the truth of the statements I make to you.

Now, Los Angeles has applied for 1,500 second feet of water on the Colorado River, to bring it in here in an immense aqueduct. That aqueduct will be constructed mainly through Riverside County, and then it will go over by way of Pasadena into Los Angeles. But that does not mean that Los Angeles is going to do all of this. I am in this work by unanimous vote of our city council, that thought it was of enough importance to our county and our city to be represented in it. Take the east end of our county, in the Cowchilla valley, there is 160,000 acres that could be irrigated from this

project, and has otherwise absolutely no chance of ever being irrigated from any other source. I am in this work, by a public vote at a meeting of our people held in our court house. I might, incidentally, say that I draw no salary, and I have no options on land, so it is nothing to me, other than to have a part, along with you men, in putting over a great project.

Now, remember this, there is no water in the Colorado river that these cities can file on. When Mr. Mulholland goes out and files on 1,500 second feet of water, there is not 1,500 second feet of water for him to file on. There is not one second foot of water for him to file on. Where is he going to get it? He is only going to get it out of storage, and that storage must be of a capacity sufficient to supply the vested rights so that they will not bring a lawsuit to prevent these people coming in and taking it out of storage. Now, why would they not object? For this reason: That they want the help of these municipalities in financing the building of that dam. Imperial County cannot do it. The city of Long Beach cannot do it. Riverside, San Bernardino and Redland counties cannot do it. Los Angeles and southern California must, of necessity, carry the burden, Los Angeles must come to the help of the other communities of southern California. What is Los Angeles? An artificial area bounded by certain governmental limitations. But they do not exist. We at Riverside, you at Long Beach, the people at San Bernardino have just as much right to call upon Los Angeles for help in order to accomplish the great big things necessary to be done. in southern California. Los Angeles says that they want to do just that thing when their representatives come before our various Chambers of Commerce meetings and tell us how much they love

us.

Now, as I say, before I went into this

work, the Mayor, the Board of Public Utilities of Los Angeles, the City Council passed resolutions, and turned copies over to me which I have in my office, the originals being retained in Los Angeles, stating that they will allow a fair proportion of these commodities, water power, etc., to go to the other communities in southern California, and I believe that they are going to play fair, that they are absolutely justified in doing what they are doing, and we cannot do it without them. They can do it without us but we cannot do it without them.

There are no politics in this organization, and we do not attempt to bring political influence to bear at all except in a legitimate and just manner, as of course all of these things are political in their nature. During the last election it was not certain that California would remain in the Republican column. It was not certain to this extent: Many of you men know Mr. C. C. Teague, who was the campaign manager in the state of California for Mr. Coolidge. Personally I have known him for years. He is a very fine gentleman. Well, a number of men went to Mr. Teague, myself included, and we said, "Now, Mr. Teague, we would like to know how Mr. Coolidge stands upon the question of the develop

ment of the Colorado River." And then came that telegram from Mr. Coolidge to Mr. Teague, in which he says, "I am in favor of a dam to be located at Boulder Canyon, or such other place as competent engineers may decide, to be a mixed storage, to take both the seasonal and the annual flow of the river, and I consider the National Government the proper agency to undertake the work." Now, that was all we wanted. We want this dam put in by the Government, under the Reclamation Service, and we do not want it put in under the direction of the Federal Power Commission. Now when I say that I do not say it in a spirit of antago

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The problem of what to do is one that delegates to the Yosemite Convention can leave behimd them when they start for the Sierras. The camps, transportation system and other conveniences for the public in Yosemite National Park are operated under the close supervision of the Government, which sees to it that facilities are provided for visitors to the park to follow their whims in the matter of amusement at reasonable cost. In addition to the conveniences aforementioned, the Yosemite Park & Curry Company has horses for those who care for saddle trips, motor excursions to the higher realms of the park for those who want travel, while trails will take those who wish to commune alone with Nature away from any sign of civilization after a fifteen minute walk. Guides are provided both by the Government and by the Company without charge for those who wish to join parties studying the natural wonders of Yosemite.

In addition to its scenic attractions, Yosemite presents some other interesting studies for city officials. Yosemite Valley is a community, governed by the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior, which expands from a population of 400 in the winter to more than twenty times that number in the summer. With this sudden expansion has come many civic problems such as those confronted in cities, but much more acute, owing to the location and the nature of the population.

For instance, there is the traffic problem of caring for motorists who descend on the valley at the rate of more than a

Resolution passed at convention of California Conference of Social Workers In Yosemite Valley, May 22-25, 1923.

thousand cars a day at times. To meet the water problem the Park Service developed a community water works and laid out a system of pipe lines in the Valley. To furnish light and power, a public power plant was developed on the Merced River. The sewage disposal plant was installed to provide sanitary conditions, while a garbage incinerating plant has been installed, much to the disgust of Yosemite bears. The largest single road building contract ever let by the U. S. Government is providing Yosemite Valley with a system of paved roads. The Park Service is operating a telegraph line and a telephone system that connects not only with the cities of the valley but with the outlying ranger and patrol stations of the Yosemite Sierras. For some strange reason, refugees from justice often think they are safe in the mountains, but the policing of the Yosemite National Park ranger service has led to the apprehension of many criminals and has made Yosemite so free from crime that doors are seldom locked in the Valley. In addition, the Park Service operates a fire department which has conquered every blaze in recent years without serious loss.

Among the numerous organizations which have held conventions in Yosemite recently are the California Library Association, the California Land Title Association, District Attorneys' Association of California, California Conference of Social Workers, California Bankers Convention, Apartment House Association of California, California Press Association, Foresters of America, California Medical Association, California State Association of Optometrists.