OCR Text |
Show BERN SEES COOLIDGE ABOUT BOULDER Oil WASHINGTON. Oct 22 (UP) President Coolidge today assured Governor George H. Dern, of Utah, that the federal government would not oppose any agreement relative to the Boulder Dam or other development devel-opment of the Colorado river, which might be acceptable to the seven states concerned, Dern said after a conversation with Mr. Coolidge Cool-idge at the White House. Dern is chairman of the Colorado river conference which met in Denver, Den-ver, and he said he expected agreement agree-ment to be reachd among the seven states at the next meeting in December. De-cember. It was his understanding that California, Arizona and Nevada Neva-da were negotiating to compose their differences before the December Decem-ber meeting. Champions State's Rights "The sentiment of the congress," Dern said, "was that the river belonged be-longed to the state rather than to the nation. We did not oppose federal fed-eral developmen of the river, but wc wanted state rights in it to be j respected. "I believed the Swing-Johnson Boulder Dam bill was unconstitutional unconstitu-tional because it asserted federal ownership of the stream. It is a settled law that the bed of a navigable navi-gable stream belongs to the state, and Utah has been carrying freight and passengers , on the Colorado river. It also is settled law that the water of any stream belongs to the state. Therefore, the river belongs be-longs to the state and we ought to get something out of it. , Wants River Developed "Power projects should be controlled con-trolled by the state and leased merely as a source of revenue to relieve re-lieve taxation. "The Swing-Johnson bill proposed to turn the Colorado river over to California. The purpose of our conference con-ference at Denver was to get Arizona Ari-zona and California to agree on di-' vision of the use of the river. "Nobody opposes development of the river. "The presidene said the whole problem ought to be looked at and j that Imperial valley flood control 'ought to be considered." |