Show FARMERS AND SMELTER SMOKE the servant of the lord told lot that sodom and gomorrah would be saved from destruction if even one righteous man could be found within the th e environments of that wicked city if there were any such he was probably visiting friends in some foreign country for the city was visited by fire and destroyed ever since the establishment of the smelters shelters sm elters in salt lake valley it began to be feared that not one just and righteous man could be found within an hours ride of murray and sandy it might have h ave been that prior to the advent of the reduction works the farmers there were of the industrious frugal and honest sort who were content to derive a comfortable competence from their ten and twenty acre tracts but it was not long afterwards before they began to make their living from the smelters shelters sm elters to which they became attached much in the balne sam manner that a barnacle annexes itself to t the hold bold of a ship a bloodsucker blood sucker to th the shin of a bather in fact to such an extent was the graft applied that the impression has long prevailed that not one righteous man could be found in thris this section of alleged poisoned atmosphere this dreary waste where the fumes from the smelter stacks wiped the foliage from the trees and the cereals from the soil like a consuming wave of flame lately however a ray of light has pierced the outer world from this field of gloom the search has been rewarded and one honest man has been found in simple words the daily tribune tells of this phenomenon as follows not all the farmers within wi thina a radius affected by the so called smelter smoke nuisance are so bitter against the smelters shelters sm elters as to desire them to be driven from the confines of the county this i is ib b apparent parent Ip from a communication just received by the tribune from E al baker a farmer of sandy mr bakers communication is an interesting one full of good points that go to show the exaggeration indulged in by those claiming damage but lack of space prevents the same from being produced here in full mr baker points out that he was born and raised at the point that now is home to him he states that it is almost as much as a mans life is worth to disagree with the majority down the valley but as few farmers aside from himself down that way take the tribune he deems himself rea reasonably safe in expressing his opinion about this important matter mr baker states that he and his brother never have suffered a bad crop on their farms for the reason that they have farmed in as scientific a manner as it is possible for men these enlightened times to farm bad luck for a farmer may mean more than bad luck it may mean bad management and smelter smoke is a convenient hook on which to hang failures of judgment or practice in las his cellar are two bins of potatoes they are to be used by him next season for seed one bin holds potatoes grown on oil his farm over which the smelter smoke rolls just the same as it does elsewhere in that vicinity the other bin contains potatoes that were selected from a car of idaho product the finest and best specimens that could be obtained in the state to the north on comparison he states his home grown potatoes excel those of idaho in every particular ti and he can produce the expressions of his salt lake customers to the effect that the utah potatoes grown and sold by him this season were as perfect as any that could be obtained anywhere mr baker concedes that farms close to the smelters shelters sm elters have been damaged to some extent but asserts that elsewhere the damage has been overrated he says the farmers have become accustomed to blaming all a their woes boes on the smelters shelters sm elters from wind broken horses to wormy potatoes not looking to see if there is not some natural cause closely akin to carelessness or ignorance to which the blame is due |