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Show Under The Capitol Dome 1 By Harry Marlowe ; :: " n Recently, the President of the United States skirted the eastern fringe of Utah on a "flying" tour into' four western states. The President and some of his top advisors were taking a look-see at reclamation pro-ects pro-ects some proposed,, some completed. com-pleted. One of those projects the President took a look at was the Upper Colorado Development, Develop-ment, specifically, the Echo Park Damsite. It is heartening that a President Presi-dent thinks enough of this Western West-ern land to come out to see for himself what we are talking about when we say that, to the West, water is more important than gold. Of course, the President grew up in Kansas, where water is not too plentiful. And he has not forgotten his West. But, some of the men close to him have not that insight, and everyone's memory needs refreshing. re-freshing. What the President saw on his trip was real interesting, observers reported afterward. First, he saw the rich fruit area of Grand Junction developed because of water resources. Then he saw the barren wastelands along ' the Utah-Colorado border which will probably prob-ably never be farm land but which some day, we hope, may be the sources of water and power for development of a lot of Utah and the west. Then he saw the "big reservoirs reser-voirs of Wyoming and the resultant re-sultant use of that water in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. It was a lesson in what judicious use of water could do. It all boils down to one thing. Development of the Upper Colorado Col-orado is not a one-state matter. It concerns all of the Upper Basin area and in a degree, all of the nation. Sen. Bill Knowland of Calif, hit it on the head when he said that what is good for the development devel-opment of one area of this nation na-tion will eventually be to the good of the entire nation. The reverse is also true. In Utah and most of the other Upper Basin states. Echo Park and the Upper Colorado Project is not a partisan matter. mat-ter. Both parties are for it. j Both parties have worked for it. But, unfortunately, that is not the case in every state. And because this is so, Utah and her neighbors have their work cut out for them in this coming session of Congress. As President Eisenhower once said, development of the Upper Colorado is of vital import to this area. He has held that opinion from the first, and he was interested enough to come and see for himself why he should continue to hold that viewpoint. But, we of Utah have a selling sell-ing job to do, not only to the rest of the nation, but to' our sister states. We can't rest on the fact that many of our leaders lead-ers know how important this water situation is. We have work to do and we are the people who can do it. Voie Turnouls Tuesday's primary brings up another interesting theory we have shared with quite a number num-ber of people for several years that the closer people are to the soil, the more interest they have in government. In Salt Lake and Davis counties, coun-ties, two of the "Big Four," population-wise in Utah, less than 25 per cent of the registered regis-tered voters turned out to the polls. Both counties had the Dawson-Dosone race to attract voters. Both had a goodly number num-ber of important local races to raise voter interest. Yet the voters were conspicuous by their absence. Garfield County, on the other hand, had no contest of other than local interest. They had only six Republicans and three Democratic races on the ballot. The voters had to travel longer distances to the polls than in either of the bigger counties to' the north. Yet an amazing 80 per cent of the registered voters turned out to the polls. The same comparison was evident ev-ident throughout the state. The smaller the county, it seemed, the bigger the vote turnout. Could be the much-maligned "cow counties" take their citizenship cit-izenship responsibilities a little more seriously than the so-called "sophisticates" in the bigger centers. No Reliable Signposts Anyone looking for the primary pri-mary election to establish any sort of accurate forecast of what might come in the Nov. 2 general election appears to be doomed to disappointment. The primary settled very little except to cut 'down the list of candidates. The vote turnout of Republicans Republi-cans and Democrats varied so much according to which party par-ty had the most contests that little reliable information could be gleaned from these figures. Even the issues were not clear-cut in the primary. Reapportionment Re-apportionment and disposal of the junior colleges alone will be a pair of issues that were ' not felt at all in the primaries or very little felt but which will leave a lasting mark in the final voting. Supporters if either Rep. Douglas Stringfellow or Walter K. Granger for First District Congressman gained little real information from the way the primary contest went. About the only thing of any real importance that came from the Second District race was that Democratic support for Reva Beck Bosone who most ' everyone expected to win was a litle greater than most experts v imagined. Confusing, isn't it? |