Show HOLD THE FORT The city council has granted the petition of the gentlemen who propose to build a railway to Deep Creek in so far as the petition pe-tition related to a right of way The right to lay tracks and move cars along certain streets has been given against the protests of numerous propertyowners But right here the municipal generosity should stop Right here the council should say that it has done enough for the petitioners and their project The council should say with I emphasis that the Old Fort square shall I not be given away sold leased or in any nth m < > nn 1 Hnt n lV 1 i v w u w uv v V tamed and still maintain that it is beyond tho lawful power of the city ouncil to dispose dis-pose of that block but whether or not this view is correct it would be unwise unpopular un-popular and morally wrong to let go of that square it would be almost a crime whatever the law may be in the case to give the square to a railway company The square belongs to the people and not to the city council and the people do not want to dispose of it and especially are they opposed to devoting it to the uses of a railway It is urged by tho few who are so eager to give away otherpeoples property that tho blocK has been devoted to truckgrowing and is doing tho city little or no good but this is no argument in favor of giving the land away The time will come when the square will be I required for a park and when the corporation corpora-tion will be able to improve it and throw it open for the use and pleasure of the people That is to say the time will come when this can be done provided tho present gang of I spendthrifts shall be turned out of the city hall before they bankrupt municipality and honest conservative men shall be placed in control of the government and given time to recover from the effects of the extravagance recklessness and ncoinpetency which arc playing such havoc with the finances Because we aro notable not-able to park the square this year does not n nn L uqu uuu ve VlLlna UUUU1U A p nli1j because the people have gotten along without with-out using that ten acres up to the present time does not argue that for all time the people of Salt Lake must not have that square for a park Salt Lake is making more rapid progress with her parks than New York made with hers or Philadelphia Philadel-phia with hers If the Pioneer square shall be given away or otherwise disposed of it will cost the people of Salt Lake city at some time ten dollars for every one that the square is worth and that block will fetch in the market today 250000 No city over disposed of its park grounds without regretting it and no city ever had too much ground for parks And again why should the city give that square to a railway company It has been asserted that the obtaining of the money to build the proposed road is dependent de-pendent upon the donation of the Old Fort block We soy this has been asserted but is there an intelligent man in the community com-munity who believes itl Wo trust not If capitalists will build the road they will build without the block which will bring them no revenue If the road will not pay wlthoutthat block as depot grounds it will not pay with it The fact is and the gentlemen gen-tlemen back of the scheme know it the building of the Deep Creek road is in no way conditional on the donation of Pioneer square Of course they are willing to take the square if they can get it Nobody would go out of his way to avoid a quarter of a million gift But if men with capital have made up their minds that a railway to the mines of Deep Creek will be a profitable investment i they will go ahead with the work regardless of the square In this connection there is another thing which should be considered and that is justice or fairness It will hardly bo claimed that the Deep Creek road will do more for this city than did the pioneer line the old Utah Central but Salt Lake didnt give that company a block although it could have done so then at a cost of 10000 for whut is now worth 250000 The city didnt give the Utah Southern depot grounds when a few courageous men with a good deal more enterprise than capital boldly set out to build a road south and make a great section of rich country tributary tribu-tary to this city When JOHN W YOUNG built the Utah Nevada nobody thought of giving him depot grounds The Denver c Rio Grande Western came in here with I a modest request for right of way along certain streets but it did not pounce upon a block in the heart of the city and ask it for depot purposes pur-poses The ground that it required it purchased pur-chased as the Utah Central the Utah Southern and the Utah Nevada had done never dreaming that it was probable I that the city would be guilty of doing such a thing as is now demanded During the past three or four years JOHN W YOUNG has brought a lot of money into this country coun-try and invested it in new railroads and it is stating only what everybody is familiar with that while he has not asiied for a foot of land for depot purposes he has found it most difficult to obtain the right of way over the streets in and out of the city Now we respectfully ask why greater generosity why even reckless generosity should be extended to a company which will spend not half the money hero that others have expended and which cannot possibly benefit Salt Lake more than others have done 1 THE HERALD is heart and soul in the Deep Creek railway scheme This paper has for years urged the building of tho road believing that it would be a good thing for tho city and the owners of the line We are decidedly in favor of tho council extending such encouragement as it can in reason in justice and in law butwe are not in favor of the council disregarding the rights of the people giving away the peoples property and doing that which will be regretted as long as this shall be a city We are squarely opposed to the giving away of Pioneer square because it would be wrong and unlawful because it would be unjust to the people in the southwestern part of the city because it is not essential to the construction of the proposed road because it would be rank injustice to all the other railway companies and because the city corporation isnot able to make a present pres-ent of a quarter of a million dollars to anybody any-body |