I think a grammatical mistake may be corrected, but otherwise I think it would be very unfortunate to even intimate that that could be done.

The CHAIRMAN. I did not intend to convey the impression that they could change anything except the grammar or the phraseology. Mr. RAKER. I do not care who the witness is; if he comes here and gives an answer, he has to stand by it.

The CHAIRMAN. Of course he has.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. At this time I serve my verbal notice upon the committee, in the most respectful manner, that I want to see the notes as originally transcribed by the official stenographer for the committee before they are corrected and after they are corrected.

The CHAIRMAN. You have that opportunity, and every other member of the committee has; and each of them is notified that the manuscripts are ready for their inspection before they go to the printer. Mr. RAKER. Yes.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. And I take it also that the reporter keeps his official stenographic books?

The CHAIRMAN. Oh, undoubtedly.

Mr. SWING. Mr. Chairman, may we now conclude with this witness? Mr. CRISWELL. May I say a word about the market for the power which will be developed there?

The city of Los Angeles is in a peculiar position, in this way: We do not want to come before this committee or any one at this time and say that we want so much horsepower: because the private power companies have spread in years past the insidious doctrine among the people in Southern California and in Arizona that the city of Los Angeles is endeavoring to "hog," as they phrase it, all of the power at the Boulder Canyon Dam; and they have attempted to work up a jealousy of these other communities against the city of Los Angeles.

They have not succeeded in doing that. The position of the city of Los Angeles is that after all of the requirements in Arizona and in Nevada and in the other municipalities and political subdivisions of southern California have been satisfied, and that power has been allocated to them in accordance with their requirements, the city of Los Angeles would contract with the Government to take all the remaining power.

Now, we feel safe in doing that; because we think that there will be an ample power for all purposes, and that the royalty to be collected by the Government on that would finance the interest and sinking fund charges, as well as the maintenance costs on the dam.

Now, I have here an official communciation from the public service department of the city of Los Angeles, addressed to the mayor and the city council. It is dated December 5, 1923. I will not take the time of the committee to read all of it. But they are dealing with this question of power and light and water, and they say:

We, the board of public service commissioners of the city of Los Angeles desire to call your attention to and urge your most earnest consideration of two conditions which we believe threaten seriously to meance the future growth of population, expansion of industrial affairs, and the progress and happiness of the people of Los Angeles:

First. There is an early prospect of a serious shortage of electric power in Los Angeles unless immediate action is taken to prevent it.

Second. That within the coming 9 or 10 years-in all probability much sooner-Los Angeles city will have reached the capacity limit of her aqueduct

water supply. The city's population already has passed the million mark. The annual increase of population now is about 100,000. At this rate the city will contain 2,000,000 people within the next decade.

Another paragraph reads:

Already our engineers, under the supervision of William Mulholland, who built the present aqueduct, are making preliminary surveys for bringing to Los Angeles an adequate water supply from the Colorado River by aqueduct. Engineer Mulholland points out that the full Boulder Canyon storage project and power development are necessary both for the city's future water supply and power supply; hence that these projects are inseparable.

Mr. Chairman, without further reading, I would like to file this entire communication with the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection, it will go in the record. (The letter referred to is as follows:)

DECEMBER 5, 1923.

TO THE MAYOR AND THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES.

GENTLEMEN: We the board of public service commissioners of the city of Los Angeles desire to call your attention to and urge your most earnest consideration of two conditions which we believe threaten seriously to menace the future growth of population, expansion of industrial affairs, and the progress and happiness of the people of Los Angeles:

First. There is an early prospect of a serious shortage of electric power in Los Angeles unless immediate action is taken to prevent it.

Second. That within the coming 9 or 10 years-in all probability much sooner-Los Angeles city will have reached the capacity limit of her aqueduct water supply. The city's population already has passed the million mark. The annual increase of population now is about 100,000. At this rate the city will contain 2,000,000 people within the next decade.

We realize that the prime bases of Los Angeles's tremendous increase in population, in industrial and commercial activities, and of the city's great prosperity and happiness are three vital advantages made possible by her municipal water, power, and light systems, namely:

Cheap water, cheap electric power, and cheap light.

The present threatened shortage of electrical power and the rapidly nearing prospect of a possible shortage in water supply are giving the board of public service commissioners gravest concern.

In our extremity we are turning to the Colorado River for our future waterpower resources to safeguard the city for all time against any shortage of those utilities that form the very foundation of our future growth, expansion, and the happiness of our people.

Already our engineers, under the supervision of William Mulholland, who built the present aqueduct, are making preliminary surveys for bringing to Los Angeles an adequate water supply from the Colorado River by aqueduct. Engineer Mulholland points out that the full Boulder Canyon storage project and power development are necessary both for the city's future water supply and power supply; hence that these projects are inseparable.

As you, our mayor, and you, the members of our city council, already well know our municipal power and light department has met with much hampered opposition in the development and operation of its present hydroelectric power business, and you well know, as we do, that we must expect opposition in the future, as in the past, from the private power corporation interests to any plans of the city for development of any hydroelectric power at all from the Colorado.

We desire to emphasize the fact that, as you already know, the Southern California Edison Co., under its power contract with the city, has not given the city and its power and light patrons that degree of good service that the city. under that contract, has a right to expect.

And we point out, also, that this contract between the city and the Southern California Edison Co. was intended as an auxiliary only to the city's municipal power distribution supply and not as a permanent contract nor an arrangement that would ever obviate the necessity for the city to develop an adequate waterpower supply of its own.

'We believe that, faced with the power conditions as they are, threatening early shortage, and the near-future prospect of a need for additional water

supplies, action should be taken immediately, and in a big way commensurate with the bigness of the city to prevent either need from growing acute, but instead to provide an ample supply of both water and power.

Therefore, we urge that this warning of the conditions as they exist to-day, and as they threaten to exist in the future, shall be made a matter of public record in the minutes of the city council. And we further suggest that our mayor take such action as may seem to him proper and expedient to safeguard the city from any element or condition that might tend to hinder or interrupt her free and natural growth.

Respectfully and sincerely yours,

BOARD OF PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONERS
OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES,

By R. F. DEL VALLE, President.

Mr. CRISWELL. And in response to that communication, the city council adopted a resolution, which I have here, which is as follows:

RESOLUTION

Whereas there is a shortage of electrical power in the city of Los Angeles;

and

Whereas it is impossible for the generating plants of the bureau of power and light to generate as much hydroelectrical energy as is required to serve the patrons of the bureau in this city; and

Whereas the Government of the United States has under consideration the erection of a dam at or near Boulder Canyon on the Colorado River for the protection of the Imperial Valley from the present flood menace, and for the conservation of the waters of that river; and

Whereas from the reservoir created by this work it will be possible to gencrate a large supply of hydroelectrical energy: Therefore, be it

Resolved, That the city council believes it to be the part of wisdom that the city should at the earliest date possible enter into an agreement with the Government of the United States to take a stipulated amount of the hydroelectrical energy which may be generated at that point.

I hereby cerify that the foregoing resolution was adopted by the coun il of the city of Los Angeles at its meeting held January 2, 1924, by the following vote:

Ayes: Messrs. Allen, Baker, Criswell Gregory, Mallard, Mushet, Sanborn, Wheeler, and President Workman (9). Noes: None.

Attest:

BOYLE WORKMAN,
President of Council,

ROBT. DOMINGUZ,

City Clerk.

That was adopted, gentlemen, by a unanimous vote of all the members of the city council, all the members being present when the matter came up.

Now, at the election in 1922, there was submitted to the voters of the city an amendment to our city charter to make it more clear so that there would be no possible argument on the point that the city might go outside of the State of California to build hydroelectric works or water works, and that it might build those works in conjunction with other municipalities, or other States, or the United States Government.

Mr. RAKER. That is a general statement of it, is it not?
Mr. CRISWELL. Yes; that is a general statement of it.

Mr. RAKER. Just let the act go in the record.

Mr. CRISWELL. But before doing that I would just like to call your attention to two or three points in it. It says:

To provide for utilizing or controlling waters within or without, or partly within and partly without, the State of California, and for the conservation. development, storage, and distribution of water, and the generation, transmis

sion, and distribution of electrical energy, for the purpose of supplying said city and its inhabitants with water and electric energy, or either of them, and to that end to do and perform, subject to the limitations and restrictions elsewhere provided in this charter, each, any, or all of the following acts and things, to wit:

(a) Enter into contracts, compacts, and agreements with any political organization or organizations, as hereinafter defined, for supplying water or electric energy, or both, to said city, or for providing or constructing for said city dis tributing systems for water or electric energy.

(b) Cooperate and contract with any such political organization or organizations concerning the conservation and use of any such waters, the generation and use of electric energy, and the acquisition, construction, and completion, maintenance, and operation of works necessary or convenient for the purposes aforesaid.

And then I would like to call attention to the last paragraph:

The words "political organization or agency," as used in this subdivision. shall be understood to include the United States, the State of California, and any other State and any district, municipal corportion, political subdivision or agency of the United States, this State or any other State, and any organization, association, or corporation contemplated by paragraph (e) of this subdivision.

Now, I have been reading from the statutes and amendments to the code of the State of California, session of 1923.

Mr. RAKER. What page?

Mr. CRISWELL. Page 1418 and running over to page 1419. I have it here in typewritten form, and I would like, Mr. Chairman, to file this charter amendment.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection, it will go in the record. (The act referred to is as follows:)

Section 2 of the charter of Los Angeles, Calif., enumerating the powers of the municipality, was amended in 1923 by adding thereto a new subdivision numbered (54) and reading as follows:

"To provide for utilizing or controlling waters within or without, or partly within and partly without, the State of California, and for the conservation, development, storage, and distribution of water, and the generation, transmission, and distribution of electrical energy for the purpose of supplying said city and its inhabitants with water and electric energy, or either of them, and to that end to do and perform, subject to the limitations and restrictions elsewhere provided in this charter, each, any, or all of the following acts and things, to wit:

"(a) Enter into contracts, compacts, and agreements with any political organization or organizations, as hereinafter defined, for supplying water or electric energy, or both, to said city, or for providing or constructing for said city distributing systems for water or electric energy.

"(b) Cooperate and contract with any such political organization or organizations concerning the conservation and use of any such waters, the generation and use of electric energy, and the acquisition, construction, and completion, maintenance, and operation of works necessary or convenient for the purposes aforesaid.

“(c) Acquire, establish, construct, own, maintain, and operate, either alone or in common with any other such political organization or organizations, any works, plants, or structures, whether within this State or outside thereof, or partly within and partly without this State, necessary or convenient for any such purpose.

(d) Make and enter into contracts with any such political organization or organizations with reference to the acquisition, establishment, construction, ownership, maintenance, or operation of such works, plants, or structures, including contracts for participating in the cost and benefits of the acquisition, establishment, construction, maintenance, or operation of such works, plants, or structures provided or to be provided by any other political organization or organizations, and contracts for the participation by any other political organization or organizations in the costs and benefits of such works, plants,

or structures provided or to be provided by said city, and contracts with any person or persons, firm or firms, corporation or corporations, for participation by them or any of them in the cost and benefits of any such works, plants. or structures, or for the furnishing to them or any of them of water or electric energy, but no person, firm, or corporation, other than a political organization, shall ever own or operate or hold any interest in any such works, plants, or structures.

"(e) Become, when authorized by law, a member, associate or shareholder, in any organization, association, or corporation now or hereafter provided for under the laws of the United States, or of any State or States, and which shall be formed solely for the purpose of acquiring, establishing, constructing. owning, maintaining, or operating any such works. plants, or structures. and membership, association, or shareholding in which shall be limited strictly to the United States, States, municipal corporations, and political subdivisions or agencies thereof.

"The words 'political organization or agency' as used in this subdivision shall be understood to include the United States, the State of California, and any other State, and any district, municipal corporation, political subdivision, er agency of the United States, this State, or any other State, and any organization, association, or corporation contemplated by paragraph (e) of this subdivision."

Mr. HAYDEN. Was that charter amendment approved by the State legislature?

Mr. CRISWELL. It was. I was reading from the statutes of the State.

Mr. HAYDEN. Do you construe that amendment to give authority to the city of Los Angeles to obtain a permit from the Federal Power Commission to build the Boulder Canyon Dam?

Mr. CRISWELL. I think the provision of the charter is broad enough to do that.

Mr. HAYDEN. Los Angeles has an application on file before the Federal Power Commission for the Black Canyon Dam site? Mr. MATTHEWs. Yes; we have an application.

Mr. CRISWELL. I am not sure; but I think we have.

Mr. HAYDEN. If that application were granted and you proceeded under the amendment to your charter by the State legislature, could the city of Los Angeles construct a dam on the Colorado River at Black Canyon?

Mr. CRISWELL. There is no doubt about that.

Mr. HAYDEN. In case a permit were granted by the Federal Power Commission--and, of course, before Los Angeles could get the permit it would have to comply with the laws of the States of Nevada and Arizona, as provided by the Federal water-power act-if you had the consent of those States, and you were to proceed to construct the dam according to your application, is there anything in your charter to prevent an agreement between the proper authorities of the State of Arizona and the authorities of the city of Los Angeles for the payment of a reasonable royalty to Arizona on the power generated?

Mr. CRISWELL. No.

Mr. MATTHEWS, No; there is not.

Mr. CRISWELL. There is not. The only thing that might intervene to prevent the city of Los Angeles from building the works is the bonding limit of the city as set up in the charter.

Mr. HAYDEN. The limit of indebtedness would have to be raised? Mr. CRISWELL. That would have to be raised in order to furnish finances for the building of a dam, a generating works, and a transmission line, together with the aqueduct which is contemplated.