Carl Hayden - House of Representatives

House of Representatives

Hayden's first run for Congress came during a 1911 special election called in anticipation of Arizona statehood. With the Democratic Party's influence in territorial politics, winning the party primary was tantamount to winning the general election. Hayden was considered an underdog to two other Democratic challengers and received an endorsement from only one Arizona newspaper. Due to his duties as sheriff along with his Arizona Territorial National Guard service, Hayden had become known to political leaders throughout the territory. These acquaintances, combined with the influence of his father's good reputation, allowed Hayden a surprise win in the Democratic primary before his election to the United States House of Representatives.

The 1911 election set a number of precedents that would characterize Hayden's later political campaigns. The first was his tradition of never mentioning his opponent's name in public. He also began a practice of caravaning around the state with other members of his party, a pattern that continued until war-time rationing of the 1940s ended the custom. He also kept a lookout for candidates with a potential to run against him, occasionally sending letters encouraging the rumored candidates to run. With good home service of his constituents, Hayden rarely faced a strong challenge for his office.

Hayden gave the jail house keys to Deputy Jeff Adams and, with his wife, began the trip to Washington D.C. the same day President William H. Taft signed the legislation granting Arizona statehood. Bearing credentials from Territorial Governor Richard Elihu Sloan, Hayden was sworn in to the 62nd United States Congress on February 19, 1912. His goal while in Congress was to help his fledgling state develop its natural resources and infrastructure while growing the state's population. Due to the federal government controlling the majority of the state's land, Hayden also wished to involve the federal government in this process. Hayden's first bill, authorizing a railroad right-of-way to Fort Huachuca, was introduced on March 1, 1912.

With the 1913 start to his first full term, Hayden supported Woodrow Wilson's policies by voting for the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, Federal Reserve Act, Underwood Tariff Act, and creation of the Federal Trade Commission. In 1914, Hayden secured an extension of repayment times for loans made under the National Reclamation Act of 1902 from ten to twenty years. The extension included greater flexibility in the payment amounts during the early repayment period. An additional change in the way that reclamation projects were funded came in 1922 with passage of Hayden's legislation authorizing revenues from sale of hydroelectric power to be credited to repayment of project debts. Favoring local control of reclamation projects, in 1917 Hayden wrote legislation transferring financial obligations and operations of the Salt River Project from the Bureau of Reclamation to a local government entity. The Bureau transferring control to local government agencies would become the model for future reclamation projects in The West. Other early efforts by Hayden included sponsoring the creation of the Grand Canyon National Park and the 1919 legislation resulting in the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Beginning with an appropriation during his first term for the United States Army Corps of Engineers to perform a study accessing the feasibility of building a flood control dam, Hayden sought to bring a reclamation project to the Gila River. Following a favorable feasibility report on the project, Hayden introduced legislation authorizing the San Carlos Project in 1914. Bill opponents claiming that Arizona had already received an overly large share of federal reclamation funds and the legislation was defeated.

Using the fact that the Pima Indians would be one of the primary beneficiaries of the project, Hayden switched tactics and, in 1916, began inserting a series of appropriations into the annual Indian Appropriations Act that paid for the construction of a diversion dam downstream of the planned reservoir. By 1922, the diversion dam was completed and named after Hayden and Arizona Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst. Final passage of the San Carlos project came in 1924 when Senator Ralph H. Cameron, Arizona's sole Republican in the Republican controlled 68th Congress, reintroduced the San Carlos bill. Calvin Coolidge signed the bill into law after the name "Coolidge Dam" was selected for the primary dam.

Hayden voted for American entry into World War I and then successfully added an amendment to a military manpower bill that prohibited conscripted personnel from avoiding military service by buying their way out and requiring all draftees to remain in the military until the end of the war. He also favored humane treatment of conscientious objectors. As an officer in the Arizona National Guard prior to the war, major Hayden volunteered to join his unit and served as commander of the 9th battalion, 166th Depot Brigade at Camp Lewis, Washington helping prepare his division for active duty. The war ended before his unit was transferred to Europe.

While still in the House of Representatives, Hayden became involved in a decades long dispute over water rights for the Colorado River. California interests at the time wanted to construct a water storage dam along with an All-American Canal to allow irrigation of the Imperial Valley without routing the water through Mexico. Apportionment of the river's waters was a contentious issue and Arizona refused to approve the Colorado River Compact designed to determine allocation of water to each of the states in the Colorado's watershed.

As a result of this disagreement when Representative Phil Swing and Senator Hiram Johnson, both from California, introduced legislation authorizing the Boulder Canyon Project, Hayden became a leader of the opposition. To this end, Hayden engaged in a variety of parliamentary procedures that prevented the Swing-Johnston bill reaching the House floor for a vote until after he had left the House of Representatives for the Senate.