Show 1 1 SHALL WE BUILD A STATE 3 Or Shall We Develop Utah's Schools and Industries Professor J. H. Paul clearly i for The liis reasons for preferring the latter Editor Utah J In response to your we need a capi-M tol I answer that we certainly and I shall lot question the patriotic mo-ives of those who advocate beginning its Sly conviction that we leed several other things even nore urgently than we require immediate use of a State on Capitol Such i building would undoubtedly eboth ornamental and useful t would tend to appreciate in Salt Lake and to stir the patriotic pride of ivery citizen who beheld My own house and the home in which I live and which propose presently to sell or is located near to the site af the proposed It advance in value perhaps twenty per rep resenting a clear gain to me of over by the decision and immediate undertaking to build the the taking of immediate steps by the legislature toward the erection of a suitable state house on Capitol hill would bo very profitable to the writer of the reflections that but would the undertaking at this time he equally profitable to the people of Utah as a What It Will The to be adequate to both the needs and the pride of our should cost not less than live millions of dollars when and the total is finally very likely to he much nearer ten than live Some years ago in I was impressed by the sight of the foundation of such a building undertaken many years before in Sacramento or I have forgotten It had already cost several millions and the walls were scarcely above grounds Anything less I feel will fail to satisfy the aspirations of the people The City and County building in round one Building prices have advanced forty per cent since so that a simlar building would cost one and a half But Salt Lake county is only one-fourth of the and the state capitol must bo at least four times as great as the county thus costing about six million of Arc wo ready to undertake the Or is this the vory best thing wo could do with several millions of dollars during the next six Would Build Reservoirs In this farmers everywhere are laboriously engaged in solving the great problem of an adequate supply of water for irrigation and of flowing wells for culinary purposes and drinking on the dry would one million intelligently expended upon reservoirs for water storage and for artesian wells do for the The government is ready to co-operate with the state upon condition of our willingness to help in doing what would probably in six an addition of from thirty to fifty millions in actual value to the farming lands of this result be better than to expend a million dollars in laying the foundation of a capitol To my mind there is no real comparison between providing cheap and valuable farms to ten thousand working families and laying the corner stones of a gigantic building on Capitol our young men ambitious to acquire a farm and home upon unoccupied must pay from to per acre for land with certain water I am informed that much of our present unoccupied dry land could bo supplied with water by the state with government aid in making and artesian and could then be sold at an enormous profit to the state at perhaps per The opportunity to secure an independent livelihood on these now lands would thus be placed before thousands of young men who cannot now afford to pay more than this price for any of the land still available for Does Utah need tens of thousands more of the thrifty and independent agricultural families occupying the now vacant Or is it that she needs a fine building on It is for the people to since at present we cannot raise money enough for Or Reforest the Another of the five or ten million dollars required for the State Capitol would probably reforest all the higher canyons and mountain crests from Sevier to Cache Cedars and other forests would fill every higher at least on the north while every irrigation ditch in evOry lower valley could be lined with rows of walnut and twenty-five such an made under the direction of the expert foresters from the Department of would represent a wealth in standing timber for building of from twenty to fifty millions of according to the price of imported lumber by that Which shall we choose a stone foundation on Capitol hill or the reforestation of our mountain areas now practically denuded of their former forest can get but not The new forests will prevent cool the attract and breed wild in crease the develop innumerable shady groves within easy reach of the poorer families in bb- sides supplying cheaper fostering home industries and yielding to the state an enormous yearly revenue on The capitol will yield nothing hut increased taxes to pay for the interest-hearing bonds in the hands of the Now is the time the psychological as the writers the people of Utah to decide between real investment and mere expenditure between profit and between material progress and empty Could Double the Farm Output Another million of the five or ten that it is proposed to lavish on a State Capitol would enable experts from the Agricultural college to double the present yield of most farm products in by showing the farmers valley just what to do and how to do By supplying free to the under the services of the best imported and the live stock industry could he revolutionized in quality and product within a. very few By lending out some of this capital at four per cent on small the output of butter could be doubled of this prime necessity of life would then take care of itself without the coaching and boosting of the combinations that at present dictate the price to the consumer irrespective of the cost of If we prefer a plentiful and inexpensive supply of good bread and butter to a stone building on arsenal now is the time to say so and to act And Make Public Fisheries fourth million similarly loaned out of the five or ten millions that will be necessary for the Capitol would unable those located near the running streams and springs to establish fisheries that would plentifully supply the market with this desirable form of food at a fraction of the present cost and just as if we had the sea-coast at our The money could be loaned on first mortgages of land worth twice its and the hatcheries required to be conducted under the and of paid official Every mountain stream in Utah could be restocked with trout in a few years for a few of the tens of thousands which the Capitol would Would Build Practical High Another of the millions that would be sunk on Capitol hill would provide for the creation and maintenance of an efficient public high school in every town of and would insure the teaching therein of the mechanic and domestic arts and as well as of the branches usual to all high Fellow citizens of is it the practical and scientific education of your sons and or the booming of real estate in Salt Lake that you most You can have one or the if you are willing to pay for but there is no apparent possibility of getting both results with the means available at the present Sanitation and Public The remaining millions that must inevitably be absorbed by the Capitol building would build good permanent roads in every would provide sewer piped water systems public telephone service and electric lights at cost to every considerable town now without It would enable a corps of trained and salaried sanitary inspectors and medical experts armed with authority and provided with to warrant the purity of our food and water supplies and to keep in check the contagious and infectious diseases that sometimes run even in places that enjoy the perfection of climate and surroundings for health and longevity It is for the people of Utah to decide between the health and the lives of a good proportion of themselves and and the creation of a vast on their the form of a stone palace on City Creek bench in Salt Lake Reality Versus Several other equally press ing the solution of which requires little capital if under expert might be indicated but why go The issue is If we decide to raise notable sums of money at this whether by bonds or increased shall we use the money profitably in the development of our vast yet almost untouched 1 or un-profitably by the erection of a monster in stone on capitol The Things More With most of Governor Spry's suggestions I am in hearty sympathy but this capitol building business I scarcely know what to say of it In view of the present condition of our material or rather the lack of throughout this region of great latent wealth and over flowing for profitable why exhaust ourselves in the creation of a gigantic which may cost as much to maintain after it is erected as perhaps any other of the state My sole purpose here is not to cast ridicule or insinuations upon the state capitol but simply to what every one is well aware of on a moment's that if we are now prepared to raise a considerable sum of money for public let us not waste it upon a mere object of state of local vanity and real estate booms in this but use it in one of several other directions such as those named For these great paying projects most truly represent morally audi many of things which are more excel- a There are two either of which might fairly justify the erection of the great state One of these is federa aid in the form of additional land grants for this The other is the recurrence of a severe sTon throwing mechanics and kind T X be and never in flush so as to give to get the most for the If the state should 3 and operate cement works I entire building could be by local and inexpensive rial and largely by the kind that suffers til most in times of Could the State Capitol be so arranged that it could l commenced whenever such col would seem to the state in helping the and needy element of labor the objections have urged herein would be i far lessened that they might 1 Sincerely J. H. Canyon Salt Lake I 4 |