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Show ldUTO S THE EDfln9ti t. 4 By W Mr CITIZEN 3 ED ODDfiMnQg? WILLIAM D. RISHEL Secretary Utah State Automobile Association This article is taken from a speech delivered by Mr. Rishel before the Salt Lake Ad Club, in which he spoke to the subject, What Is Wrong With Salt Lake City? Mr. Rishel is a recognized authority throughout the West on tourist traffic and similar matters. The Citizen neither endorses or condemns any of the statements made herein. However, the story is presented as one in which there is sound thought and much material for rumination in connection with Salt Lakes advertising problem. Editors Note: You have asked me to speak upon the question of What is Wrong with Salt Lake City. Evidently there are some people in Salt Lake who think there is something wrong with our city, or this question would not be so popular. If we are honest we will admit this question is a live topic of discussion every time a crowd of business men congregate to discuss business affairs. It is a fact that real estate values reflect the progress of a city and, judged by this barometer, there is something radically wrong with Salt Lake. I expect some will disagree with what I have to say, but let those persons effectively dispute this first statement. I will discuss the question of what is wrong with Salt Lake only from a business point of view. Much might be said about moral conditions, but that is an entirely different problem and I will not touch upon that subject. I cannot better express our community spirit, as it really exists, than it is expressed by resident of Mr. A. G. MacKenzie, a thirty-yeSalt Lake City. Mr. MacKenzie was asked to give his opinion of the needs of Salt Lake for the coming year and in part he said: There is no lack of community spirit here, but it is not effectively utilized. We always have a flock of movements under way simultaneously each with a limited group of earnest supporters, but none with the combined support of the community. This diffusion of energy inevitably causes failure to attain the results that could be accomplished with better application of our efforts and utterly fails to accomplish any results at all Mr. MacKenzie hits the nail on the head. In a few words he has told you what is wrong ar with Salt Lake. Wants Militant City Now comes the man who savs we are too oelflsh, that we are always fighting the other fellow and attempting to block his efforts to get somewhere. What he really means is that this selfishfellow is a competitor and our ness is only our way of trying to block his comselfishness, or corpetition. If this rectly stated competition, is eliminated the town so-call- ed so-call- ed is doomed. No city can ever grow without competition between its citizens, competition between its business firms, and competition between that city and other cities. I have no respect for a city that will not fight to take, something away from Salt Lake that it wants: Jiaiid I have less respect for Salt Lake if she sits by and lets them get away with it. Salt Lake, has too many combinations ami n in not enough competition. Let every the town go out to break any and all combination in the city in restraint of trade, or to raise he-ma- Courtcay prices, unless it is the particular one you are interested in, then you fight as hard as you can to protect your own, while the rest of us try to get you. Seeks Truth in News Many times you lieaj: the statement. What Salt Lake needs is a real newspaper. The Ad Club has a slogan which is Truth in Advertising. I understand you have spent considerable time and effort to compel local advertisers to use it. However, in my opinion, it is a lot of good energy spent in the wrong direction. The slogan you should adopt is Truth in the News and Editorial Columns. Remember, that when your advertising is not true it is only the sucker who is trimmed. The sucker was born to be trimmed, and according to statistics one arrives every minute. But when you publish advertising and propaganda in your news and editorial columns you are deliberated mislead-in- g the community. The public have a right to expect facts, in so far as the newspaper is able to give facts. No discussion about Salt Lakes prospects would be complete unless we mentioned our tourist trade. We read a great deal about it in our papers and it is probably the most popular theme discussed, when business men get to- gether. While I agree tourist trade is important, I want to say that one single industry, employing ten men, will bring more money into Salt Lake than one thousand tourists. This may appear a strange statement coming from a person who has spent twenty-fiv- e years trying to develop touring travel for Salt Lake City, but it is the years experience gained in these twenty-fiv- e that forces this conclusion. We should never allow the prospects of increased payrols to be dimmed by clamor for increased touring travel. While tourist travel does bring large sums of money to Salt Lake every year, it is perhaps d the most industry we have. The greatest folly we have ever committed in this city is the annual expenditure of the large sums of money in eastern papers to draw tourists. Tt is nothing short of a community crime to continue, through organized propaganda, to mislead the Salt Lake public on the. results obtained from our advertising campaigns. I am a firm believer in building up our tourist trade because it is virtually a that costs us nothing. Our roads, and our roads over-rate- by-prod- uct Chamber of Commerce alone, are responsible for eighty per cent of all the travelers who annually pass through Salt Lake City. We must have the roads for local use and therefore, any money left in Salt Lake that costs City by the tourists is a us nothing. With this fact before us, the problem of increasing touring travel is a problem of improving our roads. We are geographically situated so that the large volume of travelers, passing from east to west and west to east, would naturally pass through Salt Lake, if our roads are as good as competitive highways. We have failed in many respects to improve the most important highways and, as a result, have failed to secure advantage of the general increase in Western tourist traffic. by-prod- uct Fed Up on Bunk Our tourist traffic reached its highest point in 1923 and improved highways through other sections and failure to improve our highways is responsible for the falling off in this valuable asset to the community. We have been fed up on bunk, until the average person thinks Utah has more things of interest to tourist than any state in America. Here let me quote from a statement made by Mr. L. S. Mariger, manager of the Salt Lake Transportation Company, in a local paper within the last week. Mr. Mariger says in part: What have we to offer better than Denver, than Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco? Who would stay here a week, instead of going to Colorado or the Coast? Is there a place in the state of Utah where you can get a better prepared dinner, a more unique or worth while entertainment, than on the Coast? Have we drives superior? Is our entertainment diversified enough to keep visitors well entertained while here? Mr. Mariger said a mouthful and he is one person in Salt Lake who knows whereof he speaks because he is in daily contact with the tourists and knows what they want. I repeat, roads are our problem to bring tourists through Salt Lake on the route to their destination, because we in Salt Lake can never hope to compete, with the points mentioned, as out and out attractive points for tourists. We can and should be the distributing center for the bulk of western tourist travel, but it will ( Continued on pope 5) |