Date of Award:

5-1928

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Applied Economics

Department name when degree awarded

Agricultural Economics and Marketing

Committee

Not specified

Abstract

Utah's position among the great commonwealths depends to some extent upon the degree of development of the agricultural industry of the State. But as a producer of wealth, the mining industry exceeds agriculture. The total annual value of Utah farm products is about $39,000,000 while the total output from the mines is valued at $82,663,000. The operation of the mines, reduction mills, and smelters necessitate the employment of a large number of people who swell the population of the State, and consume a large part of the agricultural products. Utah, which is an inland State, possessing, as yet, few large manufacturing enterprises, finds the markets afforded by the metal industry a decided advantage to the farm producer. On the other hand, the interest of all phases of metal ventures are farthered by the prosperous agricultural communities. Agriculture and metal production, the two great industries of this region, are naturally helpful, and aid in the development of the State.

Occasionally, the interests of these two industries clash, and it is necessary for one or the other to give way. The farmers of the State feel that they were the first here and that they have the right over the smelters and reduction plants. Many long and bitter lawsuits have been fought in the courts of the State by these two great industries and in some cases the land owners have won and in others the smelters have won.

There was no question about damage done to agriculture close to the smelters and reduction plants from 1870 to 1920. Land owners who had paid large sums of money and worked hard to get a good farm did not want their crops burned up year after year by the wastes from the smelters without some adjustment or compensation for their labor.

Millions of dollars have been spent by the smelter companies and farmers to prove or disprove that damage to crops was done by these wastes. In many cases the land owners have either forced the smelters out of the agricultural sections or held an injunction against them. In other sections where the land owners have failed to prove that damage was being done by the smelter, they remain on their location production lead, copper, silver, gold, zinc, and a number of other by-products which are placed on the market.

The future of the State of Utah is built around the mineral industry. Agriculture is second to minerals in dollars produced per year, but it brings in few people to consume the product. The state needs more people and it is going to take the large industries to bring them to the State. By bringing in more people a better market for our farm products is created. Many people coming into the State bring capital which is invested in the natural resources and it begins to produce wealth which in turn is returned to produce more wealth and by so doing, more is received from the natural resources and placed in other lines of production. Agriculture is one of the channels into which some of this wealth is turned. Wages, which are paid to the employees, find their way to the agricultural producer, who is able to live better because of better markets for his product with better prices.

Without the metal industries, Utah would be a State of agricultural producers, living on what they could produce from the soil. The cities of the State would be little more than over-grown agricultural towns. The agricultural industries would be standing the brunt of the taxes, whereas at the present time they pay less than 15% of the total taxes in the State. Agriculture depends on the industries for its markets and the industries depend on agriculture for food for their employees. By having the two close together, the cost of production is out to a minimum. It has often been said that if it had not been for the farmers of Heber City, the opening of the Park City mines would have been delayed for many years. As food was cheap and near at hand, the miner could live and work cheaply. This was a case of unity between the mineral industry and agriculture. The farms of this section prospered because of a market for the food and the miners prospered because of the cheap food near the workings. As more wealth is produced from the mines more industries come in for further production of the metals. Smelters, mills and refineries are all dependent on the mines for their activity. These industries demand a large number of people to operate them, who in turn demand food from the agricultural producer who receives part of the wages paid by the mineral industries for their labor.

The separation of these two great industries is impossible; neither can exist to the best advantage without the other. Cheap food makes it possible for the employer to hire cheap labor, and cheap labor produces more wealth from our natural resources. The less the cost of production the greater the amount of profit that can be turned back to produce more wealth, which is the basis of the prosperity of a nation.

*The State of Utah would be in the same condition as the man with the fish hook referred to so many times in our recent Economics Books.

The farmer would be unable to produce enough wealth over and above the cost of living to invest in other enterprises which would produce more capital. We would be in a state of inactivity. Without the mineral industry we could not have the railroads, highways, schools and modern cities. The industry demands people; and people demand food, shelter, clothing and modern conveniences, all of which we have in the State of Utah.

Which of the two great enterprises is the most important to the State is hard to say. Nowdays transportation is so rapid and cheap that the people of the State could be fed by the neighboring States if the agricultural industry were completely lost. In fact, the outside States compete successfully with our local producers and place food on the markets just as cheaply as our own. But going back to the old argument, "one can't eat metal, coal and other products of this type and live," we should have to say that food is the basis of our State and the production of metal and other minerals, all of which produce wealth, second.

After showing the importance of the mineral industry to the well being of the State, I shall now center on the local condition I have selected for my Thesis.

In Tooele Valley there has been a general controversy between the farmers and the smelter men as to whether the smelter is of greater economic importance to the valley than the damage it does each year to Agriculture.

In my thesis I have set out to find which of these two enterprises is right. I want to know whether the Smelter contributes more to the Agricultural industry each year than the damage it does. In the following pages I hope to show that one or the other, or both, are bein benefited by the presence of the smelter in the valley.

Since 1870 there has been a clash between the farmers of the south end of Salt Lake County and the Smelter companies of the same section. These smelters are located in the richest section of the agricultural district of Salt Lake County. The International Smelter was located in that same section, but because the land values were so high and the cost of producing metal high, they had to look for a new smelter site. After making several surveys they decided that Tooele Valley would be the most economical place in which to locate, because of the proximity to ore, labor, low taxes, and cheap land.

The International Smelter was moved from Salt Lake County to Tooele County during 1909 and 1910. The smelter started operation late the same year. Soon after the smelter was finished and had begun operating a number of questions came up as to the effect of the smelter wastes on agriculture in the Valley; whether the smelter is an economic advantage or disadvantage to the valley; the effects on land values; extent of damage possibilities of farming under such conditions; and a great number of other questions mostly relating to the agricultural industry of the valley. In 1910-11-12 the clash came between the farmers of Tooele Valley and the International Smelter Company. The Smelter Company had purchased 8,115 acres of land and held an option on 26,672 acres close to the smelter and in the direction in which the prevailing winds carry the wastes. The farmers outside of the optioned area brought suit against the melter Company. This suit was carried on until 1917 when the Smelter Company was relieved of the responsibility of damage outside of the optioned area.

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