National Affairs: Poisoned Valley

Out of the stacks of Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co.'s plant at Trail, British Columbia, pour billows of smoke heavy with sulphur fumes. The fumes drift across the nearby international border, enter the State of Washington, permeating the broad valley of the Columbia River, poisoning orchards, crops, cattle.

Two years ago Columbia Valley farmers protested to Washington, D. C. (TIME, April 22, 1929). Washington forwarded the protest to the International Joint Commission to which, heretofore, only waterway controversies have been referred. Last week the State Department was happy to announce that the Commission had unanimously recommended: 1) payment by the smelting company of $350,000 to the U. S. to be distributed among the damaged husbandmen, orchardists, stockmen; 2) payment for all possible future damage. It was reported that the smelter is now spending $10,000,000 to abate its deadly fumes. Full of satisfaction, although the Commission's findings must be approved by both countries before becoming effective, said Secretary Stimson: "Every such decision . . . should conduce strongly to the good relations of the two countries."