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Show ; ;X Desk Sergeant and Reporter 1 & Discuss Political Economy .. BY F. W. SPBAGTJE. I), '"iC!F HAV?N'T noticed," remarked the ; f desk sergeant, as he quietly jl dosed the- station calendar on the nose of the police reporter, . who was trying to run down a scoop, ."I j haven't noticed that the country has I fgonc to the dogs to any noticeable ex- ' tent since you got sore on politics. I really expected from your talk around here recently that wo were about to be plunged Into a bloody revolution." "I don't know what reason you have J to assume that I'm sore on politics," said (, the reporter, with an Injured, air. "Just because the members of your police j force ain't working much at catching I criminals I don't go around holloria' that , j they're aoro on their Jobs, do I? Not j much. I am like them I want rest." ' . "I can't Imagine what you could do with more rest than you've been getting ; . since I knew you," said the desk ser- gcant spitefully, after he had concluded I I ' . a lively tilt over the 'phone with a man ! on .Eleventh East who wanted, a cordon , of patrolmen sent out to subdue a gang " 1 of boys who were engaged In lighting a duel with dead cats In his- back alley. "I don't object to politics, per so, as I the lawyers tay," said the reporter, ' adroitly steering the conversation back 'on rafer ground. "What T object to Is t the peculiar methods of some people 1 who Imagine that they are politicians. I Junt for example, If it hadn't been for l the Rooseveltlan attribute displayed by "William Jennings Bryan In fighting, sin gle-handed, Dave Hill and. all his- East-1 East-1 ern cohorts for four days and nights, ' they would have succeeded in Inserting ( In the Democratic platform a plank as serting that the Increased production of gold throughout the world in the last eight years had eliminated the money issue from the field of political conten-" conten-" lion." "Well, ain't that what's done it?" , "Naw, 'tnln't. At least, gold ain't tho whole thing by several billions of actual wealth. They might Just as well have said that the enormous production of sugar su-gar beets has removed the money question ques-tion from the field of political contention." conten-tion." "Sugar beets?" "Yes, or copper." 1 "You talk like a freak," said the desk , sergeant, as he knocked the police re- i porter's patent leathers from' the top of the typewriter. "Coppers may cut some figure back East as a circulating medium, but I never heard of their be ing considered seriously In that connection connec-tion In this part of the country." "You are right," said the reporter; "the coppers you have here are mostly stationary. But you don't catch my Idea. I was speaking. of copper the' stuff they gel out of the ground up at Bingham. Five or fix years ago Bingham Bing-ham was a low-grade lead camp, with no promise of ever amounting to anything any-thing in particular. The miners had been plugging around in tho hills thero I for thirty or forty years without discovering- what they really contained. Then somobody went to digging out copper ore and no ono. can yet hegin to estimate esti-mate where tho limit Is. There are a 1 half dozen or more mines opened, every I ono of which demands the full capacity of nn ordinary smelter to taJte care of its product, and the exploitation of tho territory has scracely begun. Probably not half the people of Salt Lake know that the July dividends of these mines will run closa to a million dollars, and that the once despised Binghnni camp threatens to out-Buttc- Butte In the production pro-duction of copper. But everyone hero feels It more or less. I know several newspnper boys who a couple of years ago took their meals regularly on high stools who now have consomme for dinner din-ner and order a porterhouse steak with the nonchalance of a prize-ring artist. "It's the production of wealth that counts, whether it's in the form of gold or silver or Conner or Just plain hoes, so that you produce something that somebody some-body else wants. A few years ago the miners of this "Western country got mad becaUsx? they couldn't have- freo coinage of silver and went to producing gold and copper, and they're getting rich Ih spite of everything. Tn like manner the farmers became incensed on account of the demonetization of wheat and potatoes pota-toes and began to raise sugar beets, with the same general result. Now wo are going to have here a medium for the circulation of hams and bacon and dressed meats, while a beneficent Government Gov-ernment Is carrying out a project for multiplying several times the area of cultivated lands, and if this thing goes on this country will bo so rich that there'll soon be no one to hold the offices or frame political platforms. "Of course, money 19 a good thing to have you and I have been without It long enough to know that and I don't deny that It Is a fortunate clrcumstanco that the- supply has been increased, but It's only one of a bunch of fortunate circumstances cir-cumstances in the same general category, cate-gory, that Is operating to place this country on the highest pinnacle of prosperity pros-perity and Just as rapidly putting the professional politician out of business." "That misfit pipe artist must have been smoking something fierce," murmured mur-mured the patrol driver to himself, as he came in from the back room to awaken awak-en tho desk sergeant. |
