Show barter in utah A newspaper writer has recently been onan ou an extended trip throughout the southern part of the state and one of the surprising features to him of the life in that section is the extensive barter of the people he refers to the NV washington ashington factory to which people bring their produce from within a radius of ef more mere than a hundred miles and exchange the same for cloth there is very little cash used in its operation and the factory hands own their homes and are apparently prosperous there was much of that kind of life in utah during the pioneer times the people came here penniless and prospered without money they simply went to work and carved wealth out of the crude elements great enterprises were undertaken such as irrigation canals for example requiring elsewhere thousands of dollars capitalization and carried to successful completion without scarcely a i dollar in money the people had to do without cash arid consequently without such commercial articles that required money payments and yet they prospered their homes were not mortgaged they wore comfortable for table though not fine clothing i and they had all the nem necessaries saries of life what made them prosperous first their thrift second their confidence in each other whereby they could barter and exchange labor all wealth is after all labor money is mainly a measure of that wealth I 1 of course cash alto also represents labor and to that extent is actual wealth I 1 but people can prosper without the cash element as has been proven here in utah they can save their labor and ex exchange shange hange it for the surplus toil ol of their neighbors and their united labor can form a capital quite as potent as so much money iny invested ested the canals in utah were constructed quite as easily and efficiently as though the shareholders had put in actual cash instead of their labor it was after all labor that was wanted and people united without the incentive of cash it is ia of course a convenience to have money bartering is a primitive wa way y of doing business but it has served a good purpose in utah men who now denounce it and seek to legislate it out of existence do not know what the people of utah had to endure or how they came here haupers paupers pau pers their only ly capital being their bronze dand hardened muscles it was an independent life they led and it little mattei mattered red to them what was the monetary system of the world thel their life went on in its even tenor while perhaps the commercial world was shaken like when the baring bros failed in fact their belief was that babylon would some day fall and it was therefore their duty t to 0 fee be prepared not to be par takers with it in the fall many people these days believe in its fall but they do not live as doss close to their belief as did the pioneers they perhaps see the commercial world so shaping itself that a few men control its policy and realize that the failure of one or two firms firma under such a system would mean financial failure and perhaps anarchy extending into all countries but today it seems beems so much easier tor for the people to do as the world does and even to mortgage their inheritances sod and bond their cities and counties to the gold power that it if the expected crash should come utah would be a heavy loser |