The record-union., 1897-07-30

leased in unnatural quantities and under
unnatural conditions. These fumes as
cend in great vaporous clouds, eddying
about through the hills and particularly
following streams and valleys. often OBJ
scuring the country for miles. In win
ter or damp weather they are the most
oppressive. To escape these same fumes
we are glad to get further and further
from the works at Keswick. 1t is a Won
der how people can live there and breath
these poisons constantly. 1t is a wonder
how the men at the roasters and the
smelters endure the heat and poisonous
gases and toll by the glowing masses of
molten ore. But it is no wonder that
workmen are constantly dropping out
OF their places, some within a few hours
after undertaking it.
Necessity is not a stickler for COM
forts, or for anything but immediate
sUccor. As an Illustration that human
flesh and blood belongs with the cheap
est commodities of the earth, the toilers
amid such surroundings furnish the
most graphic and unmistakable evil
dence. But we are assured upon inquiry
that there is no lack of men at the
smelters. AS to the effects upon the
health Of the toilers about them there is
a notable lack of intelligence. That
seems to be subject upon which there
is a dearth of information. No gaps ap-
pear in the ranks of toilers, and if some
OF them do not feel very well, the smoke
and CRIME of the furnaces leaves none of
them pale. The company has kept a
standing advertisement for men, and
motley army of them has been coming
and going. Whatever the effects of the
poisonous fumes may be upon mere hu-
manity, glance at the hills surround
ing KesWick assures us of their effects
uron vegetation. There is scarcely a
living tree or shrub in the region. Every
living thing has been blasted as far as
the eye can reach. In a radius of six
or seven miles the hardy pines that
Withstand freezing cold and terrific
storms, months of rainless and torrid
heat and drouth, which grow even from
rocky crevices with the greatest hardi-
hoods, these blanch first in the breath
of the smelters and are quickly as life
less as the ashes of the coal and coke
from the furnaces.
The hillsides comprising a scope of
thousands of acres around Keswick are
now covered with masses of dead trees
and blasted shrubbery. Forest fires will
quickly leave the hills bare of all signs
Of vegetation, and an expanse of baked
soil and rocks, shimmering in the heat
of summer, and washing into gullies and
gorges with the winter rains. l vent
ure to predict that the Keswick smelters
will send more slickens into the Sacra-
mentO Valley, and to the bay of San
Francisco than will the hydraulic
miners of the State. Here is a danger
that is of more than local concern and
one that should appeal to the State of
California.
In this connection there is another
condition that should receive the
prompt attention of State authority. The
drainage of the smelters at Keswick
enters directly into the Sacramento at
Spring Greek, and other milling estab-
Hshments, above there, run cyanides and
other chemical solutions directly into
the river. This is in open disregard of a
State law If thare is no protest from
the unfortunate denizens of the Sacra-
mento Valley, who are prone to drink
water, Sacramento River-water, [ say
if they are not fastidiously critical, the
subject might be introduced into a
phonetoscope and presented to the
Board of Fish Commissioners for the
welfare of the catfish and the carp.
To return TO my premises, let me as
sert that some of the people versus the
Mountain Copper Company believe that
they have rights worthy of respect
whether a great corporation be bound to
respect anything or not. If in this case
it is to be a question merely of the sur
vival of the fittest, or one of the great
est good to the greatest number, a limbo
to which so many other questions are
relegated, remains to be seen. The area
of the kind of destruction referred to is
rapidly spreading in the upper portion
of Shasta County. It is already in evi-
dence for miles. It's extent can only be
conjectured.
Aside from the denudation of unoc-
cupied lands of Government. State and
private ownership, the effects of the
smoke and fumes have damaged and
destroyed orchards, gardens and vine
yards. In most cases, so far, these
losses have been sustained by individ-
uals and scattering settlers. Taken
singly they may seem insignificant in
themselves, but in the aggregate they
are very considerable, and touch to the
quick the welfare of our more perma-
nent and fundamental interests and re-
sources. 1t is we'll known that the
most favored mining establishments
are OF doubtful permanency and fire.
quently of brief existence. If they are
permitted to devastate a region to such
an extent as will require centuries to
renew and recover it, they are to be
condemned, and their operations must
be amenable to restrictive law in a civ
ilized land
Residents of Redding, and, notably,
those of the town of Shasta, as we'll as
those of other towns west and north
of Keswick have much cause for in
dignant protest, but conflicting inter
ests, real and fancied, have prevented
concerted and formal action. Opinion
is shaping itself to decided degree,
and the various complaints are formid-
able and doubtless fully warranted and
justifable.
Beyond the primary and most evil
dent complaint, damage to and de-
struction Of property both public and
private, there is an increasing determi-
nation among the residents of the part
of Shasta County most affected to re-
sent being smoked out of their homes.
They claim, and it should seem, reas-
onably enough, that while damage to
their property should and may be COM
penSated for, there is no medium of
arbitrarily compensating them for their
homes which they are not disposed to
relinquish.