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Show Health, Wealth, Contentment and Happiness Have Marked the Past Twelve Months. WHEN venerable Father Time performs his annual ceremony as the clock tolls 12 tonight, the books of the most brilliant year in Utah's history will be automatically closed. Simultaneously there will be opened a ledger for the new year and on the title page will appear the prediction of an even more glorious future. From the horn of abundance, throughout the year drawing to a close, there has come to Utah a steady golden ". 6tream health, wealth, contentment and happiness. In no state in the Union was the death rate so low or the birth rate so high. From the mountains poured an ever-increasing ever-increasing stream of metals and minerals, and the valleys and the ranges yielded abundant harvests. Coupled with bounteous yields came steadily increasing demands of the world markets and fabulous prices.. Prosperity unprecedented unprece-dented penetrated to every nook and corner of the land. GREAT MINING YEAR. A mining state since its early days, Utah enjoyed the greatest returns during the year from the mining industry. indus-try. What the metal output for the year, will be there has been as yet no estimate, but the output is not of so great importance as the returns. Already nearly $25,-000,000 $25,-000,000 in dividends have been distributed among the stockholders of Utah metal mines, as returns for the year's operations, almost 150 per cent more than in the preceding year, and practically double the returns of the previous record year. And this amount does not include all the dividends from the mining industry in the state during 1916; it includes in-cludes only such companies as have made public reports. Some of the wealth-producing properties are controlled by private corporations, and by them the dividend reports are not made public. Then there are numerous leases which paid handsome dividends during the year and of which there is no public record. ENORMOUS DIVIDENDS. The Utah mining dividends for the year, of which reports have been announced to the public, amount to $24,757,480, while those for the year 1915 amounted to 10,418,402, a gain of $14,339,078, or approximately 145 per cent. The year opened with a flying, start, due to the impetus im-petus given mining the yean before. The output of all mines was steadily increased. The growing demand of the world markets sent prices skyward and the close of the year's activities finds practically all metals in demand at quotations nearly 50 per cent, above those of a year ago. The advance of copper, in which Utah is rich almost beyond conception, has been the most pronounced. From 20.30 cents, the high mark a year ago, at has steadily climbed upward, and the quotation now stands around 30 cents. Just a year ago today silver was quoted at 543 i cents and it now stands around 76 cents. Lead also joined the aviation class and advanced during the year from $5.40 to $7.50, the prevailing price of the past week. The advance in the price of metals has been no more marked than in the prices of farm and manufactured products. In a single year the valuation of the products of Utah factories has leaped from a little less than $50,-000,000 $50,-000,000 to more than $100,000,000, and the construction , of new factories is being pursued with feverish haste. j In the way of manufactures the sugar industry easily ; leads in the state and in the entire intermountain coun- : try. As the two principal companies operating in Utah , control all but one of the many factories actually in serv- ' ice in Utah and Idaho, it is practically impossible to con- ' sider the sugar industry other than as a two-state propo- J sition. According to the estimates made by the manufac- turers, Utah and Idaho should produce during the season now closing in the neighborhood of 1,200,000 tons of beet sugar, or about 25 per cent more than was produced during dur-ing the 1915-16 season. The production of the 1915-16 season was approximately 25 per cent greater than the preceding season. If the plans now under way are carried out, about half a dozen new beet sugar factories will be erected during dur-ing the coming year, and it is estimated that the total production next winter will be at least 25 per cent greater than the season nowT drawing to a close. SUGAR STOCK UP. The price of sugar jumped from around $5.50 to up around $8 during the year and then declined a little way. With the advance of the price of the finished product prod-uct upward went the price of sugar company stocks. From $6.10 a share in January, 1914, the stock of the Utah-Idaho Sugar company has steadily advanced to the current price of $28.85, an advance of $15.30 during the past twelve months. The upward flight of the stock of the Amalgamated Sugar company has been no less remarkable. re-markable. In Januaiy, 1914, it was quoted at $92 a share and now it stands at $245, an advance of $112 during the past year. Mining stocks have advanced in a similar manner, depending, of course, upon the output of the respective properties and the market value of the products. Both the manufacturing and mining industries have shared their prosperity with employees. Within the past eighteen months most of the metal mines have given the employees from three to four increases in pay, running from 80 cents to $1 a day. The manufacturers have not only advanced the wages of employees, but have granted liberal increases, to the producers of the raw materials, which, in most instances, means the farmers. BEET PRICES HIGHER. A little more than a year ago the sugar companies were paying a flat rate of $5 a ton for sugar beets.' This year's crop was contracted on a graduated scale, which permitted as high as $6 a ton for beets of a certain quality, qual-ity, and within the past thirty days it has been announced that $7 a ton will be paid for beets next year. Taken all in all, the farmer and the livestock grower have enjoyed a generous share of the prosperity of the state. All farm products fruits, eggs, butter, wheat, hay and fowls have advanced from 30 to 60 per cent, and in most instances the yields have been bounteous. Wheat, which a year ago was hanging around $1.25, is now up to about $1.75; hogs, from $6.75 to $10; cattle, from around $6.75 to around $9; potatoes, from 90 cents to $1.50; butter, from 25 to 40 cents, and so on down the line. WOOLGROWERS JOYOUS. Woolgrowers are especially jubilant. Not in more than a quarter of a century have returns been equal to what is promised for the coming clip. Wool which sold around 20 cents at top price in former years is now being held for 40 cents, and there are excellent indications that the sale price of the best grades of domestic wool will be in the neighborhood of 40 cents. As a barometer of the business activities of a community, com-munity, consequently the prosperity, there is nothing better than the bank clearings. In this Salt Lake City, representing Utah and a considerable share of the inter-! inter-! mountain country, stands high among the business centers of America. The increase during the past twelve years has been little short of phenomenal, and several times the percentage of increase has led the business centezs of the Pacific slope and stood high among the leading cities of the nation. Starting in January, with clearings amounting to $39,116,453.14, Salt Lake has steadify maintained an increase in-crease for each month, as compared with the same months of former years, the highest being reached in December, with a total of $62,000,000. The total clearings for the year were $502,221,881.51, as against $349,732,634.49 for the year 1915. The clearings for 1915 were a little less than $20,000,000 below those for 1912, but greater than those for either 1913 or 1914. The 1916 clearings set a new( record for Salt Lake City. POSTAL RECEIPTS MORE. The postal receipts for the year also reflect business activities not occasioned entirely by the growth of the city. The total receipts at the Salt Lake postoffice for the year are $3,609,256, as against $2,993,375.95 for 1915, or an increase of $615,880.05. With increased output in all lines of industry and unprecedented demands for all products at record-breaking prices it is only natural that the great arteries of the continent, the railroads, should share in the prosperity of the state and the nation. Passenger traffic was lighter during the year than had been anticipated, probably because be-cause the majoi'ity of persons postponed pleasure tours in the mad pursuit of wealth. But the lack of passenger traffic, which traffic is never a great net revenue producer, pro-ducer, was not missed. In fact, the lack of it during the past season was rather welcomed in many quarters, because be-cause of the immense amount of freight traffic that was offered for movement. So great was the freight traffic that all power and practically all labor available was re- quired to keep it moving, despite the scarcity of boats to handle the enormous volume of export traffic. Railroads that had been painfully near the debit side of the ledger for years bounded into the front row among the dividend payers, and the equipment manufacturers were driven to the verge of insanity by the pleas and threats of the railroad managements in a mad scramble to get ample equipment in the field to handle the great volume of traffic. All Salt Lake railroads, that is, those centering in Utah, were among the prosperous, and on account of the great earnings some of them seem on the way to stability. Jitst what the value of the farm and livestock products prod-ucts marketed during the past year was it is difficult to estimate. The fruit crop was about the only one that was not abundant, but the demand and high prices for other farm products made the farmers forget for the moment the damage of the late frosts last spring. What fruit there was brought high prices, but the crop in the central and northern parts of the state was considerably below normal. LIVESTOCK VALUES. Although the returns from farm and livestock products prod-ucts for the year are not available, a fair estimate of the wealth represented by these lines of endeavor in Utah may be obtained from the state tax lists. The total valuation val-uation of livestock in the state last spring was $2S, 733,249, according to the tax records; the personal property, outside out-side of livestock, was assessed at $84,213,209. These items do not include mines and mine products. The valuation valua-tion of mine improvements, as fixed by the state board of equalization, was $8,338,879, and the net proceeds $21,-622,652. $21,-622,652. The total wealth of the state, as reflected by the assessable property on the tax lists, was $532,949,645. A comparison with former years is made difficult because of the change in the method of taxation during the past year. Many of the big industries which did not grant an increase in wages and salaries during the year took cognizance cog-nizance of the inc.ease in the cost of living and shared their prosperity with employees by giving bonuses near the close of the year. Millions of dollars found their way in this manner into the pockets of Utah men and women and added considerably to the wealth of the state. UTAH FORTUNATE. The interruption of commercial relations between the United States and certain countries of Europe brought about a shortage of many products which had not long before been manufactured in this country. Many of them were necessary, even vital, to the commercial life of the country, and brought about the establishment of new industries in-dustries in various parts of the country. In this connection connec-tion Utah has been especially fortunate, and the development develop-ment of natural resources which might otherwise have lain undisturbed for decades has been begun. These industries in-dustries are now in their infancy, but they are gaining a firm basis which can only result in greater activity in all lines of industrial endeavor in the commonwealth. For this reason, especially, the prediction upon the title page of the ledger to be opened tonight to the account of 1917, for continued prosperity, seems to carry an air of sincerity. |
