Show OUR COUNTRY TRADE I A Business flairs View of the Country THE PRINCIPLE OF CREDITS Observations During the Course of a Visit to the Southern District Dis-trict From nnOccisional Correspondent In spite of all that is said about hard times and the general stagnation of business the farmers of Southern Utah do not stand in need of a great deal of commisseration Their granaries are filled full to overflowing sothat neither man nor beast need go hungry during the coming year They have comfortable comfort-able homes the best of shelter for stock j fuel cheap and abundant and for the products of the dairy and the poultry yard prices are high enough in all conscience i con-science I have passed through the whole length of the Sanpete Valley recently Most people know why the superintendent superintend-ent of Bradstreets travels and what is the nature of his investigations All the difficulties of business are talked over the causes of hard times and the prospects for better and while he deals with individuals he cannot fail to gather a good deal of information useful in framing conclusions involving the general gen-eral welfare I have returned to Salt Lake believing that the merchants of Southern Utah are as little entitled to sympathy as the farmers though they need it far more The majority have more goods trusted out than lie upon their shelves many have twice as much out on credit as the amount of their entire capital some few have precious little leftbut book accounts or tnemosi I uncertain value These last are the incurable in-curable maniacs of trade and the soon r I they are mustered out of business the better for all concerned The wholesale merchants can better stand a moderate loss now than a larger one by and by rhe majority of the country merchants mer-chants began to see stars early last spring and cut off to a large extent the credit business All these have steadily improved during the year and owe less in Salt Lake than usual They are buying buy-ing less and with reasonable patience on the part of wholesale dealers they will come out in gobd shape A select few insisted en restricting the credit business two years ago and these are the fellows who come into Salt Lake masters of the situations discount their bills and get a carload of goods for avery a-very small amount of money A strictly cash business is simply an impossibility credit is one of the inventions I ventions of civilization and is founded on the greater stability of character that marks this generation over its predecessors pre-decessors But safe mercantile credit is short credit and short credit is just as practicable in the country as in the town So far as my acquaintance extend tends I am convinced that Abram Hatch of VIeber Wasatch County J is the best country merchant in Utah He successfully suc-cessfully established the thirty nnl ttv day credit system in Wasat County three years ago and its benofi ir seen not only in the prosperi u lurmer I chant but which is teiit uore im portent in the prosperiM Hi c he people of that vicinity The farmer usuall I three resources re-sources His live stol tv hu butter eggs and poultry and his grain Whoever I I has these three sources of income moderately mod-erately at hand will never suffer seriously 1 serious-ly for they are never all depressed Two i of these now bring all that can reasonably 1 reason-ably be asked while the third grain I is cheap but its cheapness insures low I price labor and thus brings largely its I own compensation I 1 The farmers of Sanpete Valley are eagerly looking for the extension of the narrowguage railroad to Manti and I 1 I hope they will not be disappointed A strictly local railroad managed on I I business principles is usually not only a reasonably profitable property but is of special value to the people I have been interested recently in reading of the experience of three New England local railroad They were doing nicely I jon j-on a strictly local business One of them got an ambition tojoin a Great Through Linemade a double track and trebled its equipment handled millions of tons or western freight to the seaboard and did a rushing business busi-ness But it paid no dividends The other local roads looked on andpro tited The Latterday Saints have good houses of worship in everv town and hamlet of this valley and in nearly every village from Nephi to Richfield there is a handsome Presbyterian Church This suits me as a businessman business-man There can be no permanent prosperity where religious rancor prevents pre-vents neighbors from living in mutual goodwill and charity and where there is astinted welcome tosettlers of diverse faith C A C I I 11 t |