The people of Salt Lake City are waking up to the realization
of the trouble of which our cousins out in the country are
complaining. The sulphurous fumes which have been tasted by
many folks here, particularly late at night, are not only those
of a partisan nature emanating from the smokestacks of the
slanderers and maligners, but are treats bestowed upon our
citizens by the smelters, and are samples of the goods, or
rather evils, which farmers and horticulturists have been
burdened with so long. Complaints have come to us from some of
the best people of the city, of different faiths and parties,
that the air has been laden with sulphurous fumes that can net
only be felt in the throat, but tasted in the mouth, and they
rest upon the city at night, appearing like a thin fog.
The fact is this smelter smoke will have to go; there is no
mistake about that. If the smelters can not consume it, they
will have to close up. This fair county must not be devastated
and this city must not be rendered unhealthful by any such a
nuisance as that which has been borne with now for a long time.
The evasive policy that has been pursued, the tantalizing
treatment toward the farmers who have vainly sought for
redress, the destruction that has come upon vegetation and upon
live stock, and now the choking fumes that reach this city all
demand some practical remedy in place of the shilly-shally of
the past.
The Deseret News has counseled peace, consideration for the
smelter people in the difficulties that they have to meet,
favor toward a valuable industry that should be encouraged on
proper lines, and arbitration instead of litigation. But it
really seems now as though an aggressive policy will have to be
pursued, or ruin will come to the agricultural pursuits of Salt
Lake County, while the city will not escape from the ravages of
the smelter fiend. If the companies that control those works
will not or can not dispose of the poisonous metallic fumes
that pour out of their smokestacks, the fires will have to he
banked and the nuisance suppressed. We do not believe the
latter is the necessary alternative. We are of opinion that the
evil can be disposed of, and we are sure that efforts ought to
be made to effect it without further delay.
It looks as if the courts will have to be appealed to to obtain
compensation for damages already inflicted. Also that they will
have to be applied to for injunctions against the continuance
of the cause of the trouble. We think there is law enough now
to proceed under. But if that is not the case, then legislation
must be had to fully cover the ground. Litigation will have to
come first, legislation afterwards. However that may be,
temporizing with the evil will not do. Patience has ceased to
be a virtue in this matter. The conviction is fastening itself
upon the public mind that no active steps are intended by the
responsible parties, but simply a policy of delay. They must be
taught that this will not answer the purpose, and that the
injured people will not be fooled in that way. The smelter
smoke must go. And it must not go in the old way.
The proposition to put the matter in the hands of experts
chosen by the complainants is not to be seriously considered.
The onus is upon the smelter men; they are the offenders, and
they must take the steps necessary to remove the cause of
complaint, and also reimburse those who have been injured. We
do not ask anything unreasonable. We join with those of our
citizens who Intend that this beautiful part of our lovely
State shall not be laid waste, even if the only cure is the
suppression of the destroying cause. This may as well be
understood first as last. Useless practical measures are
adopted to abate the evil, active proceedings will have to be
taken and pushed to the utmost to remove entirely the root and
branch and trunk and body of this tree of destruction. The
people affected are deeply in earnest, and they certainly mean
business.
Mr. KEARNS. Mr. President, I must not burden you with too many details,
but in order for you to see how complete is the business power of this
man I will cite you to one case. The Great Salt Lake is estimated to
contain 14,000,000,000 tons of salt. Probably salt can be made cheaper
on the shores of this lake than anywhere else in the world. Nearly all
its shore line is adaptable for salt gardens. The president of the
church is interested in a large salt monopoly which has gathered in the
various smaller enterprises. He is president of a railroad which runs
from the salt gardens to Salt Lake City, connecting there with trunk
lines. It costs to manufacture the salt and place it on board the cars
75 cents per ton. He receives for it $5 and $6 per ton. His company and
its subsidiary corporation are probably capitalized at three-quarters of
a million dollars, and upon this large sum he is able to pay dividends
of 8 or 10 per cent.
Not long since two men, who for many years had been tithe payers and
loyal members of the church, undertook to establish a salt garden along
the line of a trunk railway. One of them was a large dealer in salt, and
proposed to extend his trade by making the salt and reaching territory
prohibited to him by the church price of salt; the other was the owner
of the land upon which it was proposed to establish the salt garden.
These men formed a corporation, put in pumping stations and flumes, and
the corporation became indebted to one of the financial institutions
over which the church exercised considerable influence. Then the
president of the church sent for them. There is scarcely an instance on
record where a message of this kind failed of its purpose. These men
went to meet the prophet, seer, and revelator of God, as they supposed,
but he had laid aside his robes of sanctity for the moment and he was a
plain, unadorned, aggressive, if not an able, business man. He first
denounced them for interfering with a business which he had made
peculiarly his own; and, when they protested that they had no intention
to interfere with his trade, but were seeking new markets, he declared
in a voice of thunderous passion that if they did not cease with their
projected enterprise, he would crush them. They escaped from his
presence feeling like courtiers repulsed from the foot of a king's
throne, and then surveyed their enterprise. If they stopped, they would
lose all the money invested and their enterprise would possibly be sold
out to their creditors; if they went on and invested more money, the
president had the power, as he had threatened, to crush them. Not only
could he ruin their enterprise, but he could ostracise them socially and
could make of them marked and shunned men in the community where they
had always been respected.
Is there menace in this system? To me it seems like a great danger to
all the people who are now affected, and therefore of great danger to
the people of the United States, because the power of this monarchy
within the Republic is constantly extending. If it be an evil, every
apostle is in part responsible for this tyrannical course. He helped to
elect the president; he does the president's bidding, and shares in the
advantages of that tyranny.
I did not call the social system a violation of the pledges to the
country, but I do affirm that the business tyranny of Mormon leaders is
an express violation of the covenant made, for they do not leave their
followers free in secular affairs. They tyrannize over them, and their
tyranny spreads even to the Gentiles. In all this I charge that every
apostle is a party to the wrong and to the violation. Although I speak
of the president of the church as the leader, the monarch in fact, every
apostle is one of his ministers, one of his creators, and also one of
his creatures, and possibly his successor; and the whole system depends
upon the manner in which the apostles and the other leaders shall
support the chief leader. As no apostle has ever protested against this
system, but has, by every means in his power, encouraged it, he can not
escape his share of the responsibility for it. It is an evil; they aid
it. It is a violation of the pledge upon which statehood was granted;
they profit by it.