In her farewell column, Rebecca Walsh fired a salvo at the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, encouraging the church to embrace smaller families ("Leaving the place I love," Tribune , July 11). I couldn't agree more. My environmental consciousness was born in the zero population growth movement of the '70s, and I still consider human overpopulation the most basic of all environmental problems.

Whether or not The Tribune admits it, Walsh's comments say something about the newspaper itself. Mormons aren't the only people undermining Utah's quality of life with self-centered overbreeding. The same criticism could be leveled at Utah's immigrant populations, notably Hispanics. But amid the ceaseless stream of pro-immigrant Tribune stories, I don't recall any that were concerned about this problem. Frankly, that's hypocritical.

A newspaper has a journalistic duty to be something other than an engine of propaganda for any particular segment of society. The Tribune needs to balance its blatant pro-immigrant bias with some clear-eyed analysis of the impacts of fast-rising immigrant populations on the school systems, social services, crime rates, the quality of life in neighborhoods such as Glendale, etc. Your readership deserves as much.

Darrell H. Mensel

Salt Lake City