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Show BOULDER DAM BILL APPROVED WASHINGTON, D. C. Dec. 22. The Boulder dam bill became a law when President Coolidge signed it last Friday, but it is not in effect, ef-fect, and cannot, under its own terms, become effective until the Colorado river compact is fully ratified. rati-fied. That is to say, if Arizona, before be-fore June 21, next, shall ratify the seven-state compace, and California in the meantime unconditionally ratifies, rat-ifies, the law will automatically become be-come operative after the president by proclamation has announced full ratification. Or, after June 21, if Utah shall ratify the six-state compact, and California ratify unconditionally, the law will become operative. But until one of these conditions is met the law is a dead-letter and not a dollar can be ' spent; not a stroke of work done under its terms. Furthermore, no construction can be undertaken, in any event, until the secretary of the interior shall have made contracts for the sale of power from1 Boulder dam, on terms adequate, ade-quate, in his opinion, to repay the cost of the investment within 50 vears. That President Coolidge signed the bill so promptly did not surprise the friends of the bill; his early approval was a shock to those who have been opposed to the legislation. According to the latter, the president, in signing, sign-ing, went directly contrary to the principles he laid down in his message mes-sage to congress less than three weeks ago, for the bill, by its very terms, proposes to put the government into the power business, a thing the president so recently denounced as unwise. It is true the bill contains alternative plans by which the power privilege may be leased to private interests, but in the form in which the bill finally was agreed to, leasing of the water for power purposes is the last, not the first, of the- alternative alter-native plans, and, furthermore, the law, in its first paragraph, declares the purpose of the act to be controlling con-trolling of floods, etc., "and for the generation of electrical energy as a means of making the project a self-supporting self-supporting and financially solvent undertaking," a direct declaration of purpose to put the government in the power business. The first move of the advocates of the Boulder dam will be to bring pressure to bear on the new Arizona legislature, which meets January 7 to ratify the seven-state compact, and to persuade Governor Phillips, who takes office the first of January, to reverse the position of Governor Hunt and help bring about ratification. No effort whatever will be made to bring Arizona until line until Governor Hunt and the present legislature retire. re-tire. What the attitude of the incoming in-coming legislature and incoming state administration will be, no one here professes to know. There are rumors that the Arizona senators will urge ratification by Arizona after the new regime takes hold, especially if California Cali-fornia is generous to Arizona in formulating for-mulating a new three-state cnmsxicl among the lower basin states. The Arizona senators are nrt dispensed dis-pensed to discuss the matter at this time. If Arizona, within the next six months, dees not ratify, the next step will be to bring pressure to bear upon Utah to have her ae-ain ratify the six-state compact, for, 1 after June 21. 1929. the bill can b" made operative when six states rat- : ;fv. and Utah is the one outstanding state, other than Arizona. Whether influence will be brought to b'-ar on the Utah legislature to ratify a six-state compact in advance ol the date named. June 21, will soon be disclosed. The probabilities are that Reclamation Recla-mation Commissioner Mead will soon prepare and submit to the secretary of the interior estimates for the first appropriation to be asked for beginning be-ginning work on Boulder dam. Tlie law signed merely authorized the appropriations ap-propriations to be made as found necessary; it actually appropriated no money. The appropriation will have to be made from year to year, as the work progresses. The initial appropriation, ap-propriation, if made this M'ssion. cannot can-not be extended, however, until the conditions of the Boulder clam uct have b"cn m t: it will have to be an appropriation to become availaMe only when these conditions have been fulfilled. For the law is such that expenditures cannot even be made for the preparation of detailed field surveys until the preliminary stipulations have been complied with. Whether an cITort will be inside to build Boulder dam by contrarl. or by the reclamation bureau, employing it.s own engineers and men. is yet to be determined. In any event, th" work w.ll ko forward under the di-restK'n di-restK'n of H( r ian.a: ion Couirni'-sioner M'fid. lor the law authorizes the mt- j retary of the interior to build the dam, and that means the reclamation reclama-tion bureau, the only cons' ructuu; at"ncy :n the department. |