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Show lUffLLS OF LUMBER INDUSTRY ' fcwSrEs."?! BlfH Foreign Demand, Results in .. In 2 STIMULATE BUILDING IN SALT LAKE. lower!!8- f I 3 H I IH I I t H W4HHH--H--m H I H I I I t HI II I I I I I I I I I v- I I I H I I I It I I I M I IH HH-HH- 1 I I I I I I I I I I M H First Presbyterian Church. !" 'Tls an 111 wind that blows nobody Tho old saw may be said to apply to the "healthy" storms that have been Impeding progress In Salt Lake this It's this way: The spring storms have by no means been confined to Salt Lake and Utah they havo been general pretty much all over tho country and have been particularly severe In the Northwest. Building operations havo been completely tied up on the Pacific con$t and as a result tho lumber mills are greatly overstocked and prices have pone down. Lime, cement and some other building materials have ehared In tho decline, making conditions for building more propitious than they havo been for many seasons. Builders Getting1 Busy. And Salt Lake City citizens in largo auirabcrs are preparing to take advantage advan-tage -of the conditions. True, we havo rjr Abies of our own the mud, the rain l"nd tho snow havo thus far Interfered jreatly vvlth building operations, but . mow aj'd rain and mud can't last nl- ! vP ways irt this climate. Our recupera-1 recupera-1 1 Ivo powers are much greater than are I hose of some of the coast States where t,i f. vater stand3 for weeks after the rains ff I' 'ease. "With us when tho sunshine ii 'J 'omes It comes to stay, and Old Sol will f Wl )o in business at the old stand but a Jjr Y ew da"3 wbon conditions will have be-j be-j J' 'omo normal and the wheels of pro-fvLY pro-fvLY jress will begin to revolve at full veil ve-il 1 .oclty. i ThlH spring tlio velocity win greatly i ' I ;xcced that which usually obtains, to li1' make up for lost time. This would bo , ' true without the added Incentive for fijy J oulldlng which Is afforded by tho lower r'm ,1 prices of material with this Incentive AC Vj Jiero Is every Indication that all bulld- Bj ng redords In Salt Lake will be broken. A.B pointed out In lust Sunday's Tribune I there is much building In progress In ' spite of the untoward conditions, but so i many there are waiting for the settled H , weather which must come ven' soon, t ihal tho tlrst week of continued sun- H ihlne will seo an Increased activity ! which will be surprising. So many Hp,' aulldings will be started all at once that FT I t will look almost as though an entlro t V new city were being bullL ft j Materials That Aro Cheaper. H J. "Yes, It Is true that building mate- f rj lals are on tho whole cheaper now than I i ai ney wer lQ8t ycftr or tnan tncy "avo Isfi 3een or txmc time," said J. A. Ilcad-Mg)u Ilcad-Mg)u und of tho llrm of Headlund & Co., (fj"' irchltects. Lumber Is about 10 nr cent II mi J hcaper than It was last year, plumbing yjR s about that much cheaper and bricks vlll average perhaps 2 per cent higher. Ml Taking all kinds of building material W t t w(U averaco from 5 to C per cent jl "Tlie reduction will undoubtedly stlm- i ilato building to Borne extent. Thcro H .re already Indications of a lively l ih 'Ulldlng season, which will open Just j s soon aB tho weather will permit. "Wo IK re already making a good many plans 1 tnd estimates, but of course tho I fx veathcr has held everything back." rjj Mills Are Overstocked. Im I "Itvn' ot he Washington lumber f S nllls havo been forced to close down en- I'rcly, so badly has the unusually wot JiMW vlnter and spring disarranged trado ' 'ondltlona on tho coast," said a well nown builder and rent cstat? i"ftler. 2B JTho lessened demand for lumber has mk icsulted In the mills becoming so badly ' Uii Overstocked that they have no moro itorage room and therefore they must m' fuspend operations. Under these con- "tiM "ltlons they are naturally willing to sell fl; mber at reduced prices to get It out Si j.f their way. No one knows how long H Jjhe lower prices will last. They may Mw list all summer, but some dealers look WM for a raise In from forty to sixty days. M ut It Is evident that Salt Lake peoplo ;S rjre going to take advantage of tho Aft-rrw wor nr,CC9 while they do last. There Wfvil KOlng to be more building done this ?aBon than for some tlmo post. T ih' Demand for Houses. V to"And thero 13 a dcmand for a1' -ho tfl nrtouses that can be built. New, modern bi-ouses do not remain vacant any length 'JH h time, while a rooming-house or Ijusl-t Ijusl-t "V ovesa block usually has a tenant long A "U woifore It It? completed. Roomlng-jH Roomlng-jH Qftiuses aro In demand at tho rate of & H of room Per month, In anything like a H opjod location and thoae In operation are H poil making money. There i3 every ln-HPH ln-HPH at iccmcnt for the Improvement of va-v va-v HO?'Jlnt ground In the city and many cltl-' cltl-' V'P viiinB wth capital, and non-residents as frr Jii'llj-j-eallze this fact and arc prepurlng nrf i o't 2 ta'e advantage of It. There Is no bet-Tm bet-Tm itf Investment than lmprovod real iccrtato In Salt Lake." Wl 3ioV Prices Can't Be Lower. Vjjfc 'I don't consider that the bad weather ""'B by any meann the most Important i "tor In naklng lumber cheaper," said A'H ank L. Parker, manager olf the Par- I I qA " Lumber company. "During the last L o xeors thero way an unprecedented G0000000 DECREASE IN THE COST OF BUILDING MATERIALS AS COM- 0 PARED WITH LAST YEAR. Common lumber $3 per thousand feet reduction G Flooring $5 per thousand feet reduction Sash and doors " 16 per cent reduction Lime i 10 to 16 per cent reduction Portland cement 50 cents per barrel reduction Brick About 2 per cent advance Plumbing 10 per cent reduction Labor and other Items about tho same. foreign demand lor lumber and tho mlll3 of this country Increased their capacities capaci-ties to meet It, This year, probably on account of the Eastern disturbance, the foreign demand has fallen off largely, 1 and, an a result, our mills ha e accumu- ' later great supplies of building material, and prices havo naturally gone off. "No, I don't think prices will go any lower. They have reached bedrock now. The growing scarcity of timber will prevent pre-vent a further decline. It will be only a matter of a little tlmo when tho surplus sur-plus stocks will be worked off, and then former prices will bo restored. The present situation should stimulate building not a little." Great iear for Building. T. T. Burton, manager of the retail department of tho Burton Lumber company, com-pany, takes an optlmlstlo -view of tho building outlook. "I look for 190-1 to be the greatest-building greatest-building year In Salt Lake's history," ho said yesterday. Everything points that way at thl3 time. Never before have there been so many residences going go-ing up this early In the season, and tho season has been unusually unfavorable for building. Thero are large Jobs In sight, too. The cold storage plant of tho Utah Cold Storage company, work upon which has nlready begun, will use as great a quantity of material this year as did the Emery-Holmes terrace building build-ing last year. You will gee that that Is quite a start In Itself, and It Is not the only one. "Yes, the reduction In tho price of lumber should cut a figure In building. Common lumber runs about $3 a thousand thou-sand cheaper than it did lust year and flooring and eomo kinds of finishing lumber are about JG a thousand cheaper. But tho greatest reduction of all has been in tho price of Kish and' doors, which havo not been so cheap in the last decade as they are right now. This will make a very noticeable difference In the cost of a bill of lumber for a building that has many windows and doors, and there nro bound to be those, who will take advantage of It. Builders" hardware hard-ware Is also cheaper, nails being CO cents a hundred below last yeary price. Thero seema to be no end to the demand for houses In Salt Lake and there are usually men with money to meet such a demand. Thcro are no labor troubles this year In the way of capitalists taking tak-ing advantage of the otherwise unfavorable unfavor-able conditions for building, and I believe be-lieve it will be the banner year for prog-res-1' In this regard." "Wo made a sale early last Monday morning as the direct result of the re-, re-, view of the conditions in tho city con tained In Sunday's Tribune, and business busi-ness has been much better all the week on account of It," said the head of one of (he leading real estate firms. "I have talked with several other real estate men who toll .me the same story'." ho continued. "The fact Is that a great many of our people have been kept so close at home by the extremely bad weather that they had not realized before be-fore what wao going on. "When they learned that in spite of the mud the Oregon Short Line Railroad company had begun active work on its new shops, depots and other Improvements, which are to cost fn the aggregate upwards of 52,000,000, and that there is enough building under way besides to be calleQ a 'boom' In almost any other city In the country, It opened their oyes and they began to sit up and take notice. The result has been that quite a number have decided to wait no longer for the mud to dry up before making their purchases or getting ready to start the building they had contemplated. Why Salt Lako Will Grow. "And they nro wise. Property will I never be cheaper In Salt Lake than it Is right now, and It will never cost less to build. Tho reduction In many kinds of building material cannot utand long, for obvious reasons, and even without the oil strike which experts so confl- dently predict, there aro enough things doing In Salt Lake to make It a city of 100,000 population In less than live years. This Is not 'hot air.' It is n consummation consumma-tion as aure to be brought about as anything any-thing can be which is dependent upon human agencies. The three railroads that are being built to this city would build u city of 100,000 Inhabitants In tho Sahara desert, provided they centered on that lonely waste and opened the Barae rich' mining territory that they will open tributary to this city. How much more they must do for a city already al-ready well established, with most advantageous ad-vantageous surroundings, can only be conjectured, but I am willing to put my faith and money In Salt Lake on' the prospect. I know that thcro arc hundreds hun-dreds of others who feel the same way, and It Is my belief that there will be the greatest amount of building and general gener-al Improvement going on In Salt Lake this year that has ever been seen here in one season. No Uso for ELnockors. "I am one who doesn't believe that wo can do too much talking for our town, so long ag we tell the -truth, and one doesn't have to evade or enlarge upon facts to do a good Job of talking for Salt Lake. Some of the largest and best cities of the country havo been built largely by talk, or confidence, which amounts to the same thing. Notable among these Is the 'Windy City' on Lake Michigan. That city has continued contin-ued to grow simply because Its citizens Insisted that It should not stop growing. But, of course, they backed their faith by works. I'd rather be called a booster than a knocker any time." |