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Show McKay Asks Understanding; Bailson Raps Echo Park Critics A plea from Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay to California Cal-ifornia to support the proposed Echo Park Dam project, and a stirring assailment of critics of the project by Utah's Rep. William A. Dawson, made the news headlines across the country coun-try during the past few days. Sec. McKay in an address before be-fore the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce last night called for California's understanding and cooperation on the proposed Upper Colorado' Storage project and particularly the controversial controver-sial Echo Park Dam. He told the group there was no satisfactory alternative site to Echo Park because the best of them would mean the loss through evaporation of enough water to supply all the needs of a city of more than 600,000" people. "Could you here in California afford to lose that much water?" wa-ter?" the secretary asked. 'Real purpose' Secretary McKay said he shared the concern of those who would preserve the beauties beau-ties of Dinosaur National Monument Monu-ment in their present natural state, but regarded the water which its Echo Park Dam would store as more in line with the real purpose of conservation. "If Gov. Gifford Pinchot was right when he described the purpose of conservation as 'the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time,' then what has been done to develop de-velop Lake Mead and the vast recreational areas of the Tennessee Ten-nessee Valley, all by-products of water project construction, follows fol-lows the Pinchot doctrine right down the line," said Secy. McKay. Mc-Kay. 'Very Important Rights' . "And what has been done in Lake Mead and in the Great Smokies is what we have in mind in Dinosaur National Monument. Dawson Raps Critics In a speech before the lower House in the Nation's Capitol, Tuesday,' Rep. Dawson lashed out at critics from California. His stirring speech was promp-(Continued promp-(Continued on back page) Echo Park . . . (Continued from oage 1) ted by the circulation among all House members of a letter from the Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club which attempted attempt-ed to refute an earlier letter from Mr. Dawson to the House members which set forth the facts in the Echo Park controversy. contro-versy. Attacked Case Point-by-point the Utahn attacked at-tacked the case of the opponent oppo-nent of Echo Park Dam and in doing so he accused them of j spreading "the type of misrepresentation misrep-resentation which is causing this project so much grief." He further held that the letter was typical of the concern displayed by California-dominated conservation conser-vation groups over Utah's scenery whenever a project pertaining per-taining to the waters of the Upper Colorado River was involved. in-volved. Typical of the Los Angeles' groups charges was one denying deny-ing the river was dangerous by stating that last summer more than 500 amateurs had run a river, going from end to end of the Dinosaur National Monument Monu-ment rapids with no hint of accident ac-cident and no peril whatever. Often with no experienced river runners within call and with no need of them on most stretches." Mr. Dawson replied by quoting quot-ing John A. Hacking, a Vernal boatman, as saying that he had nersonally rescued a Mrs. Dot Pepper during the last California Califor-nia expedition last summer and for his efforts she sent him an honorary membership in the Sierra Club. In a recent poll of the members mem-bers of the House Interior Committee, Com-mittee, most of whom visited Dinosaur Monument areas last fall, 13 of the 23 members were quoted as being in favor of the project; several had not made up their mind; a couple wanted more'' time to study the issue, and only one voiced absolute opposition to' the project. The chairman of the committee, commit-tee, Rep. A. L. Miller (R.. Neb.) has denied that he gave out information that the Bureau of the Budget had turned down j the river project. He was at a loss to know how the report had been circulated. Mr. Miller ' will be in Utah next weekend, Feb. 10, 11 and 12 to appear as speaker before the State Republican Re-publican organization and to address the convention of the Utah State Press Association. Mr. Miller indicated he would be happy to meet people from Utah who would like to discuss the project further with him, an offer that no doubt will be taken tak-en advantage of by local people peo-ple especially. |