Show BUSINESS PROSPECTS f Merchants still seem a little puzzled puz-zled over the dullness in business circles and while not at all worried r are undetermined as to the cause oi the existing depression Of course the immediate occaaiosu is the scarcity of moneythat anyone can tell but what led to the scarcity is that which botlyrs If merchants will think the matter over they will find that in8s there was just such anoth r depression and they all wondered thou what bould cause it and kept on wondering for a time until it passed away and in a very brief period after they were hardly able to supply tho demands One thin which will to some extent account for the absence of as much money is the fact that all this period last year the Denver and Rio Grande was spending a great deal of wealth in this830imfcry in the construction of its roads by far the greater portion I por-tion of which found its way into I general circulation in Salt Lake Tho income from this source is less great Again merchantscountry ones ns well stocked themselves pretty heavily more heavily than existing conditions justified and it is taking time to work off the results re-sults it necessarily makes purchases slow and has a disheartening effect Another item mentioned by some nifty not be without weight Those who held their potatoes over win tor in the hope of realizing the customary cus-tomary amounts wore greatly disappointed dis-appointed for instead of bringing from 40 to 45 cents and upward per bushel farmers have been forced to sell at a figure which little more than covered the actual cost of production pro-duction in fact when the holding of the potatoes for five or sis months a with consequent losses from frost and the expense of extra handling hand-ling is taken into considerationit is i I not unlikely that an actual loss was intalled and as potatoes have generally gen-erally been Spring standby the failure in this regard has had discouraging dis-couraging effect on the farmers and necessitated their being closer than usual A profit of 15 to 20 cents on each bushel of potatoes such as the heavy producers of this county are accustomed to realize would make quite handsome figure if computed a and its lOBS is correspondingly tAp t-Ap from these comparatively trifling considerations thero it noI I cause for depression Tko d nil + r 9 l1C rl neaa is i due as much to the fact that buslne3s has not been as lively as people had led themselves to believe it would be as it is to real causes That it can be only temporary is apparent ap-parent in the moat unequivocal dlrec tions In the first place real estate which is a reasonably solid bass I for judgipg of a citys comparative prosperityin teadof being unfavorably unfavor-ably affected by the dullnessis constantly con-stantly growing in value The prices of many propeeties have almost doubled since last spring and today to-day the utmost difficulty is experienced exper-ienced in renting houses at any thing like a reasonable figure Many people have had an idea that tae completion of the D R G to this city would be the signal for a decided reduction in freight rat F and though the narrowgauge road has been in operation for two months and the anticipated tumble is yet unrealized they still seem to cling to the delusive expectation and hold off in making purchases There is sot a shadow of logic in this anticipation as time if not reason will convince them Any material change would be as disastrous dis-astrous to the roads as to merchants mer-chants and to the public for it would unsettle values inV every I direction and cause a suspension of labor in muny industries A new classification in freight rates went into effect some time ago and the popular impression laB that it meant a reduction in carriage j but to show the falsity of such impression impres-sion a person has only to run over in his mind the number of articles that he purchases cheaper today than he did in 1882 and he will find they are very few if indeed in-deed he can discover any at all Theclassification referred to reduced the tariff on some articles and increased in-creased it on others making the average about the same and while we do not say such is the case it would not be surprising if upon a careful examination it were discovered dis-covered that the average was a trifle higher Hence merchants will overcome the idea that they have but to wait and there will be a tumble in the tariff the only imminent im-minent tumble will be that of business busi-ness men themselves and they will speedily begin to purchase as usual < TII ft me competition 01 sue jj a it u has opened a new country which is certain to pay tribute to Utah and will speedily manifest itself while there is a tendency to open up a trade between Utah and Colorado which is certain to prove of great benefit to both and especially to Utah for the reason that she produces pro-duces innumerable articles that Colorado must have and our territory terri-tory is now in a position to compete wish any section for that trade This will ultimately prove a source of great and increasing wealth to Utah and it will be only a short time before there are palpable evidences evi-dences of the soundness of the position here taken But to return to purely local conditions con-ditions Utah bag indulged in no wild schemes the bursting of which will retard her progress j every month new industries are being established new avenues tj employment em-ployment opened and tho production pro-duction in older ones in order t to supply existing demands is i increased Artisans and mechanics mechan-ics are in such demand that their labors command the highest figures while laborers can find steady employment at remunerative prices building is in progress to an extent never known before and the fine weather being conducive to the making of brick and adobies there will be an unprecedented demand for labor in this industrial branch f While merchants and the public I generally had hoped for livelier I times the proverbial caution of the people of Utah kept them from ruinous extremes and they are on a sound basis j there is no marked depression de-pression in surrounding communities communi-ties and for that reason if for none other dullness in Utah could be only short lived not a day passes but Utah produces more than she consumes con-sumes not a day that her wealth fails to increase j her resources are unfailing her industries profitable her laboring classes employed slid supplied and everything is really satisfactory As a matter of absolute l abso-lute fact there is no depression in busIness for the volume is proportionately propor-tionately larger than ever before anis d an-is assuredly healthy The whole difficulty hinges on the fact that merchants are not doing as well as they wanted to there is no boom for which they should return thanks and they are disappointed Within two months we will hear no more of these complaints and we charge nothing for the prediction |