The Phil Swing years, Part 2
Making the Hoover Dam a reality
From 1921 to 1933, El Centro Congressman Phil Swing represented the 11th U.S. Congressional District in California, which comprised seven California counties: Imperial, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Mono and Inyo.
As a U.S. congressman his duties were wide-ranging. But foremost among them was his Swing-Johnson Bill, his legislation for a high dam on the Colorado River and an All-American Canal. Hiram Johnson, former governor of California and the state’s U.S. senator during the 1920s, signed up to push the bill forward in the Senate. But it was Swing who did the heavy lifting.
Swing resubmitted his bill in 1923. Happily, President Warren Harding supported it. The stage was set for Harding to visit the Imperial Valley as part of his trip out west, but sadly, Harding died in San Francisco that summer. Calvin Coolidge, the quiet and dour former governor of Massachusetts, didn’t share Harding’s enthusiasm, preferring a more limited role for the federal government. The bill stalled in committee again.
The U.S. Senate comes to El Centro
A new tack was to invite the Senate committee on irrigation to El Centro in October 1925 to hold more hearings on the project. Hiram Johnson came along to host the committee and educate the members in more detail. They toured the irrigation system in Mexico. They also heard from supporters and opponents of the All-American Canal.
At that time, a mostly local group called the Colorado River Control Club was strongly against the All-American Canal (AAC). But it omitted its opposition to the AAC in its campaign materials. Hundreds of Imperial Valley farmers and city folk joined this club thinking they were supporting both the dam and the All-American Canal.
Supporters of Phil Swing’s legislation formed an alternate organization: the American Conservation Club. It quickly began a counter campaign to explain to Control Club members what they actually signed up for. Many hundreds quickly disavowed the Colorado River Control Club. At the El Centro hearings, Hiram Johnson held up 329 postcards of farmers and others who had withdrawn from that group.
The effort to undermine support for the All-American Canal was traced back to a consortium led by the owner of the Los Angeles Times newspaper Harry Chandler. Chandler and his friends owned nearly all the farmland across the border in Mexico as well as 47,000 acres in the Imperial Valley. Their agreement with the IID gave them half of the water passing through their land in Mexico.
During the hearings, Sen. Ashurst from Arizona asked Charles E. Scott, president of the Colorado River Control Club, why the owners of the Mexican lands were unanimously opposed to the All-American Canal. Scott said he couldn’t answer. Ashurst replied, “Let me answer it for you in the nomenclature of the poker table: No man with four aces ever clamored for a new deal.” “That is correct,” said Scott.
These hearings settled the issue on the Valley’s position on the All-American Canal. They were for it. With this support, Phil Swing submitted his bill again. But once again it died in committee. Swing was discouraged. Why couldn’t the committee members see things his way?
The tide turns
Then two major events turned things in Swing’s favor. In April 1927, floods overflowed the Mississippi River to 70 miles wide and covered 23,000 square miles. Two-hundred fifty people died. Now, Congress understood floods. While touring the flooded zones, Swing talked to farmer after farmer about his proposal. All were against a big dam on the Colorado River. Why? Swing heard the same story with fascinating variations. In cotton-producing states, farmers were against Swing’s dam because it would irrigate a million new acres of cotton and ruin their livelihood. In corn states, farmers told him about a million new acres of corn. In wheat states, a million new acres of wheat.
About the same time, news broke that the National Electric Light Association (NELA), composed of privately held electric companies, was behind this effort to sabotage Swing’s proposal for the U.S. government to build a high dam and go into the electricity-generating business. The Federal Trade Commission released a voluminous report detailing that the National Electric Light Association had paid elected officials, college professors and ordinary citizens to write letters and reports against Swing’s efforts. They also sent out those deceptive flyers to farmers. The scandal helped turn congressional opinion against the electricity trust and toward the federal government being in the power business.
Finally, in 1928 Swing found that a former enemy had become an ally. Harry Chandler, whose L.A. Times newspaper had been filled with vitriol against Swing for years, was now in support. The world had changed for Chandler’s Mexican holdings. After the long Mexican revolution, it was clear that his sweet deal was about to come to an end. He feared that Mexico might expropriate his property. And it was also clear that both water and electricity provided by a high dam would bring profits to Chandler and his friends’ plans for development in Los Angeles.
One victory at a time
As often happens with long, complex battles, victory came quietly. The House of Representatives approved the Swing-Johnson Bill on May 25, 1928. In celebration, thousands of Imperial Valley residents gathered for a barbecue. Phil Swing was feted as a hero.
But the finish line was not quite reached. Sen. Ashurst from Arizona and Carl Hayden from Utah filibustered in the Senate for 21 hours. It adjourned its spring session without ruling on the bill, with tensions so high that a brawl was barely averted. Johnson did manage one last astute move, which was to secure a point of order that his bill would be considered first in the fall session.
With no way to again delay a vote on the bill, the opposition was finally defeated. The Senate approved the bill on Dec. 14, 1928. Four days before Christmas, Calvin Coolidge decided not to exercise his veto power and signed the bill. The Boulder Canyon Project Act was now law.
Swing had worked for 11 years to guarantee a secure and reliable supply of water for the people of Imperial Valley. The dam was now funded. To appease those who wanted private development of power at the dam, a clause was left in to allow it. But it was never implemented.
Along with approval of the dam came the passage of the Colorado River Compact of
1922. This four-page document remains the keystone of the labyrinthine set of contracts, statutes and agreements known as the Law of the River.
Swing had become the consummate politician and negotiator. He repeatedly revised his bill to satisfy its detractors without losing focus on the prizes. He had stripped the All-American Canal from the bill to ensure its passage. Congress approved it separately in 1931.
Boulder Dam, soon to be renamed Hoover Dam, was finished in 1935, two years ahead of schedule. The All-American Canal went into service in 1940 and was fully operational in 1942.
Now one of the most visible members of Congress, Swing had made some enemies, so his quest to become California’s senator was blocked. He retired from politics in 1933 and embarked on a successful law practice in San Diego. He died in 1963. We honor him today as perhaps the Imperial Valley’s most important figure.
Looking back, looking ahead
Hoover Dam and the water and power it produced opened the west to development: Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas and all their suburbs grew quickly after the dam. But at what price?
A hundred years have passed since Phil Swing officially began his campaign as a U.S. congressman. The perspective of time offers insights not available then. It’s obvious now that there was no true opposition to the project. It was more a question of who would be in charge. No one with any political power said that dropping 4.5 million tons of concrete into Black Canyon was a bad idea -- as environmentalists would surely say today.
At that time, the delta of the Colorado River below the border was 3,000 square miles of rich plant and animal life, fed by a network of annual overflow streams from the river. Now, apart from a few hundred acres being rescued by groups like the Sonoran Institute in the United States and Pronatura in Mexico, the Colorado River delta is 3,000 square miles of wasteland.
We are certainly grateful for Phil Swing’s industry and single mindedness. But now, maybe it’s time to take stock and give a little attention to what damming the river has done to its ecology — to Mother Nature.