Show AFFAIRS IN how a writer views alie situation HE TELLS OF THE NEW conditions IN THE TERRITORY and the dis for keeping alie atik commission t the chicago daily inter ocean in its issue of last saturday published a letter from its special correspondent concerning affairs in utah which outside of the usual slate hash about polygamy etc is a very fair statement of facts as they exist the writer says alter an absence of four years I 1 fee f ee a wonderful change salt lake city has greatly improved in alie character of its i buildings the growth of its trees and alie beauty of its streets is very marked its railroad development is remarkable its manufacturing interest is rapidly increasing its population now amounts to at beasi and its future is exceedingly promising it is indeed a beautiful city and prospering its wide streets feet from curb to curb regularly laid out in even squares throughout its length and breadth every street bordered with trees and running water ita green fields and its grand old mountains as a border background all combined make a charming and unequaled picture on my first aielt in 1870 coming down the canyon the valley looked like a barren deseret but yesterday when coming down the big cottonwood the view as I 1 broke from the confines of the mountains was beyond anything I 1 ever saw lovelier and more beautiful than words can convey the surrounding mountains the distant emerald lake the lucern fields the clumps of trees here and there the thrifty farms in perfect squares like a piece of patch work comfortable and much improved homes the many high chimneys of the shelters smelters sm elters and the city of the in the far distance is indeed a sight that seen will never be forgotten the tourists miss all this the grandest of all that is to be seen as they confine themselves almost tu to the city though they visit occasionally the great salt lake fort douglas and the wonderful springs I 1 propose before leaving the territory to civo your many readers a letter especially devoted to the climate advantages of aliis territory for eastern invalids the florida craze is on the wane and it should be and more attention should bo directed westward in the mormon church there is evidently a revolution going on oue of importance to them and to the common interests of the territory Terri tor the determination mi nation of the united states government to extinguish polygamy the enforcement of the edmunds bill the execution of the law by actual imprisonment and fine is a terrible scourge eco urge and I 1 cannot but beef it is having a good effect though the permanent resident not belonging to tho church claims that these polygamous marriages are even now being celebrated as much as ever this is however denied by the mor mons most emphatically some idea may be formed as to the figur of these prosecutions when it is stated on good authority that on sentences of about four mouths there is on the average in the penitentiary for this offense alone about prisoners most of whom have also to pay 1 a fine and expenses of their defense I am inclined by a careful inquiry into alie matter that there is a big falling off in the number of these marriages and even these are conducted bosc cautiously and with every possible concealment some of the gentiles are of the ion that it is the policy to get every marriageable man into polygamous relations in order to make the institution more formidable and resistance easier and some aro of the opinion that only the thoroughly tried and reliable ones can get permission to enter into the relation and still others think that the relation is actually established by verbal permission of the apostles and no ceremony employed I 1 want to say that the utah commission I 1 think should be at once abandoned five men each per year for two weeks labor and all their expenses is a piece of extravagance the united states government has never before been guilty of As I 1 understand it and as it presents itself it is simply a supervising committee of the mormon annual election and I 1 should blush to own that tho gentile population of this territory can not produce five men to oversee and accomplish an honest election I 1 will take the responsibility of baying it can be as well done by hundreds of men residing in the territory that I 1 can mention at one tenth of the cost of alie present commission let there be no delay whatever in the duty of president looking into this matter in all my investigations of political questions connected with the affairs of this territory for the many years I 1 was your trusted correspondent have I 1 eyer seen anything to feel so grieved over as alie enormous pay that these men have received appointed from distant places necessarily entailing large expenses I 1 siope before I 1 leave here to report more fully what alie commission baa accomplished complis hed there lias been as you already know a consolidation of railroad interests that is of great importance to the common interests of alie country it is a scheme of president charles francis adams of alio union pacific and is deserving of special mention the roads are the oregon line the utah northern the utah central the utah and nevada alio salt lake and western and the ogden and syracuse measuring between 1400 and 1500 miles these roads as I 1 understand it arc intimately if not actually in alip control of alie union pacific and alie object of the consolidation is to extend it from milford to los aggeles Ao geles cal a distance dia tance of miles |