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Show I Unde the Capitol Dome i ) ganizations have spent some $350,-000 $350,-000 to convince the public this was true. While that was going on, the people in Utah were appraised of i the truth, most or the other Upper Basin people had an idea of what was going on, hundreds of thousands thou-sands of letters poured in to Congressmen Con-gressmen condemning the project, and upper basin solons couldn't 'get over a handful of letters from the four states most concerned. .That will change this year. This idea of the "Acqualante" giving a dollar to an organization to protect pro-tect the vital water interests of the four states. The idea has appeal, ap-peal, and the plans of the organization organ-ization good. They will get long way to arouse public interests. j They will also mean that a ' great many people in the Upper Basin, besides contributing a lit-j lit-j tie money to the war chest, will I get all the information about the whole project, information needed so intelligent appeals can be made as they must be from at least 100,000 people in the four states to the members of Congress. For once, the four upper basin states are united on the fact that this is a good idea. Utah is already al-ready organized ready to push the plan, Wyoming is ready, Colorado and New Mexico soon will be. Let's hope that this ' isn't another an-other case of locking the corral gate after the water trough has already been emptied by the neighbor's cow. i By Harry Marlowe There are a pair of old axioms which state "Better late than never" and "the race is not always al-ways to the swifty." If the Upper Basin states hope to get authorization of the vit-ally-peeded Colorado River project, pro-ject, these axioms had better be true and applicable in this case. In Salt Lake City recently, Utah Wyoming, Co'oracX) and New Mexico Mex-ico got together to do something which should have been done at least three years ago organize a "grass roots" committee, with some finances, to push for authorization auth-orization of the project. This citizen's committee is organized or-ganized to "tell the public the real story of the Upper Colorado River development." And, there is no doubt this committee will do a good job. There isn't much doubt they will be able to raise at least the $100,000 fund they are aiming at. But. can, this group undo the prejudice built up, particularly against the Echo Park Dam, by wide-awake conservationist (also obstructionist) interests who were getting in the body punches while the upper basin battlers were still I in their corners waiting' for the I bell. An impression has been built up throughout the eastern United States that construction of Echo Park dam will in some way open the flood gates to dams in every national park. Easterners are convinced that valuable dinosaur bones will be covered, "some of the most beautiful beau-tiful scenery in the world" will be ruined, and that there are "any number of alternate sites as good as Echo." These citizens have that impression impres-sion because Californiai's Sierra Club, many and varied conserva-I conserva-I tion outfits and several other or- |