ScQuft (Leake PougCuft Smoke Dim Spurts Trouble Recorded First in 1891; Improvement Attained in 1920 "The first winter of the intensive inten-sive campaign against smoke now Is drawing to a close, and opportunity oppor-tunity is afforded to note results. From my office window I can see dozens of smokestacks, and not a trace of smoke can be seen arising from any of them. Last winter most of them belched black smoke much of the. time. This is the best evidence of progress in smoke elimination. Showed Progress "Making due allowance for favorable fa-vorable weather conditions this year, it still is evident that material ma-terial progress has been made and it has been conclusively demonstrated demon-strated that the smoke nuisance can be practically eliminated. "The smoke department under the direction of Commissioner A. H. Crabbe. with the able assistance as-sistance of the advisory committee, commit-tee, headed by George D. Keyser, has made decided progress, in securing se-curing improvements that will be of permanent benefit in reducing our smoke evil. Editor's note: This Is the second sec-ond In a series of articles dealing with Salt Lake City's - smoke problem Its history, causes and proposed, remedies. By WILLIAM F. MNEANY The t year 1919 saw Salt Lake City ranked as one of the smokiest cities in the world a dubious distinction dis-tinction shared with a handful of notorious "cinder boxes" Leeds, London, Glasgow, Hamburg, St Louis and Pittsburgh, to name a few. Following what was Judged to be a "great improvement' over smoke conditions existing prior to 1920, when a vigorous smoke-abatement smoke-abatement program still was in the talking stage, the city suddenly dropped back to a. low point in its assault against the soot and dirt covering Salt Lake City a quarter of a century ago. Major smoke offenders at the turn of the decade were not confined con-fined to any one class. Larger Industrial plants were producing only about 35 of the total smoke In the city, and in a continued drive to lower that figure brought percentage down to less than a quarter of the total smoke volume "It is especially gratifying to be able to report that local call-road call-road officials are cooperating in every way possible, and have worked out plans that reduce smoke from this cause to a minimum. mini-mum. . "The smoke department is in touch with other places that now are giving trouble, and plans have been made for alteration of these places to make them smokeless. The situation la such as to give everyone encouragement, but the fight is not over, nor will it ever be so long as our principal fuel is soft coal. Eternal vigilance must be the watchword if we are to maintain permanently smokeless conditions in our city." Mayor Suggests Aid In his letter, Mayor Neslen urged the "use of smokeless methods of firing as a permanent habit of all citizens" to combat the problem. in the following 10 years. As had been discovered in other smoke-plagued cities. Salt Lakers soon found that the "first 00" reduction in over-all smoke was the easiest Slashing the smoke cloud in half was accomplished in one year the winter of 1920-21 In Salt Lake by the simple process of showing a handful of the largest fuel consumers how they could save money on their coal bills by paying closer attention to the proper methods of firing. Possibly the best general view of the smoke situation as it stood in the early '20s was reflected in a letter dated Feb. 1, 1921, written writ-ten by C. Clarence Neslen, then mayor of Salt Lake, to Miss Johanna Jo-hanna Sprague, city librarian and a member of the city smoke abatement abate-ment committee. In part, the mayor wrote: Smoke and its variegated aspects were not new to the city administration admin-istration then in office. Back In 1913, before the United States' entry into World War I. an article by J. Cecil Alter, published in "Mines and Methods" for February, Febru-ary, brought Into focus the then prevailing conditions in Salt Lake City. "United States weather bureau records," the article stated in part, "show smoky days in Salt Lake City as far back as 1891, with the following observation: 'Sulphurous soot from smelters produced the majority of smoke in the city, over all other sources. January, 1913, was the record month, showing more fog and smoke in the 30-day period than in any other month in the previous 40 years.' Bureau figures showed a marked Increase in smoke production from 1902 on, the year that industry began outgrowing its comparatively compara-tively "small fry" era to come of See Pare 11. Column 1 - T ' 1 " 1 " ..-.. i.i . riL5n -T7 ... ..... "x. ..: . . f- ... . ... t .' ,' . . , ' ' . ' .... . .. . - . ' ';.' -: ' - .- C ' : .' . : . ... ' . '' ' ! .r . . j . '. ... I ):-.. ' . " ' .'..'.-- ;.' ' . .- - .' . $ .' !. .. . '.' t , ; .: , . i 'v':' ' " . ":; -; - -'i : ? . r -. a ' "'- ( ' i ii - i i rye.' n." isnaiT' J" I Concrete evidence that the smoke evil atlll exists In Salt Lake City la shown la these two pictures, j I Left, a photo taken about 8 a-m. from east bench 1 I area. Not one glimmer of downtown area Is visible. I Right, a photograph taken from the same point as I at left, but at 1 pan. Despite time of day, little can be distinguished through the smoke. In ltH.. Salt Lake ranked aa one of world's smokiest cities.- SMOKE TROUBLE OoatlntMd from Local Page ft In tht unparalleled position of American business, which reached an all-time peak in the World War II years. Cost of the smoke menace to the city during 1913 was placed at 12.000.000, or about S17 for each Salt Laker, according: to population flrures then available, which xave the census at 115,000 prraons. The 117 per capita flfure was said to be the average amount for similar sired cities In this country confronted with smoke hazard a. An Interesting sidelight to the situation was provided in the bureau bu-reau report which pointed out that about 3.000.000 -wild ducks . had met their deaths In the sulphur-tainted sulphur-tainted marshes surrounding Great Salt lake in the three-year period . Bine 1910. The dead fowl were examined by the pathological laboratory lab-oratory of the United States bureau bu-reau of animal Industry, and death was determined to be "due to Inflammation In-flammation of the alimentary tract caused by sulphuric acid.' The death-dealing sulphur. It was said, was found In thin coatings atop calm waters, and also on vegetation and greenery which provided the ducks with food. Pleat of Boot In case anyone still had doubts that the city's smoke problem was one of any magnitude, the weather bureau, with dorred determination, determina-tion, went on to show where the moke was. and In what cities, even breaking; It down to square nlle measurements. These flgures were released to show the stag;-rertnt; stag;-rertnt; amount of soot and dirt ' roverlnr the blacker of smoke-palled smoke-palled cities. Duet deposit per square mile: Tons Graftoa. W. Vb. 1B7 Baltimore 100 Claag-ow 1S2S PltUbarfU 1031 Hamburg , 690 London 1 - Salt Lake City ZM Almost three hundred tons of sooty dust lying- around to the square mile In the proud western city of Salt Lake would appear to be all the Incentive needed for surrtnx public spirit in the amok fiffht. The call to arms, however, If heard at all. was pretty much ignored. War Take Attention The World war swept Rait Lake, along with the rest of the nation, Into a f rankled determination to "get It over over there." Stacks tf Liberty bonds were more Important Im-portant than smokestacks, and the national temper waa high enough aa It waa, fed by German atrocity stories and insidious rumors ru-mors about the British conduct of tha war, without the need for the reminder that smoke waa curl Ing up Into the Salt Lake sky at a tremendously accelerated rate, going almost unheeded, and practically prac-tically undoing all the rood that bad been accomplished. The end of the war was to see, however, strange but encouraging signs of a civic urge to get at the moke problem again with renewed re-newed vigor. While the planners and expounders on how to solve the problem once and for all were no doubt sincere and well meaning, their sometime eccentric methods hardly could be taken seriously, by present day standards. Oddly enough, almoat any pro posal was accepted for trial in the period of resuming peacetime in dustrial work, and those misdirected misdi-rected methods that feU by the way, discarded, at least showed that the problem still waa one of concern to a majority, and with the typical American passion of striving for Improvement they were determined to find the best, and moat economical, method of ridding the city of smoke.