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Show THE CITIZEN 4 of a dark dismal corner we now have an imposing office building which stands out prominently as an office edifice in the day time and as a mark of progress at night because of the ideal electrical illumination. , It is a real pleasure to stand and look at this illuminated office hotel of the building at night. . If every large office building and would make the biggest city was illuminated in the same manner it hit in advertising our city, as among the most progressive of western cities. The illuminating effect at night is a big feature and is an attraction to all who happen in the line of vision. This 'big stone structure has been completely cleaned and paint- ed on the outside and a complete transformation is being made on the inside in the way of new lighting and plumbing fixtures and reto the Beason pairs where necessary. The name has been changed other large Building. It is a credit to the city, and the owners of our business blocks ought to emulate the illuminating .feature. ,The pride of progress really makes the enviable community and it is such a community that people find pleasure in praising. . : , GREAT STOCK SHOW. which Everybody that can ought to see the stock show at Ogden, is being held in the new coliseum. It is one of the grandest sights deever seen in this state, and the Ogden businessmen are surely of that serving of a great deal of credit in putting over a proposition kind. Such an array of pure bred and fine looking cattle were never assembled in this state before, and the courteous treatment of all visitors brings to perfection the best stock show ever held in the state. Of course the new building, the equipment and conveniences adds tone to it all, and it represents the general prosperity of the cattle interests of the state. No finer cattle can be found anywhere in the world, and critical judges of fine cattle say that Utah is fast forging ahead of her sister states in all breeds of cattle. We must congratulate Ogden for having a real live bunch. PROGRESS. As the year 1925 passes out the United States stands as the worlds most prosperous nation. Less than 150 years after the founding 'of our government we have outstripped in spiritual and material progress, every other country on the globe. The outstanding feature of our government which every American should appreciate is the opportunity which it affords to exercise individual initiatives, enterprise and ability to develop ideas along any line of honest endeavor. This is not a land of privileges for a few and oblivion for the many. Any man who has energy and perseverance can rise from the lowest to the highest position in industry, religion, politics or whatever his choice may be. Each man and woman has the opportunity for a fair start regardless of the handicaps or disadvantages of ancestors. It is no wonder that a nation where every family can set its own goal to strive for without hindrance from either political, religious or social sources, should have developed in a manner unparalleled in the worlds history. The average American home is a palace compared with European homes. Our homes are warmed with modern heating plants. Dinner is cooked on an electric or gas stove. Fresh mountain spring water is carried to the homes through modern plumbing; homes are provided with hot and cold water, and the bath tub, which is seldom seen in Europe, is part of the fixtures in every home, all of which places the American homes head and shoulders above those of other nations. Music during the meal may be furnished by a piano, phonograph, or the more modern radio which will bring to the dinner table the opera, news, music or lectures from points which may be actually thousands of miles distant. In the evening the home will be flooded with light through pressing a button; and the telephone, that indispensable article to the American family, will offer communication with loved ones or friends who may be in the next city block or 3,000 miles across the continent. i After dinner the family will probably take out the automobile; ' whether it be a $200 secondhand flivver or a $10,000 enclosed palace on wheels, and go for a 50 or 100-mil- e ride over paved highways, or to some play or entertainment, as the mood strikes them. V :?. Chance, which in the past wrecked the happiness and future .. prospects of so many families and industries, has been largely elim- -' inated in the American home: through, modem insurance methods;1 which have seen their greatest development here in order to take care of the varied needs and requirements of American family and busi-ness life. i "This is not an overdrawn picture. It is typical of the average home in every town, village And. city, in the United States. It is so commonplace to most of us that' we are prone to forget the background of sound government which has made it possible. But at this season of the year, when it is the endeavor of all the world to appre ciate the blessings it has received, it is well for us in this nation to be doubly grateful for the opportunities which we have. Each of us, individually, should determine in our own minds to se that the structure founded by the fathers of this country is not weakened, but made stronger with age; and that the opportunity and freedom guaranteed to the individual and industry under our constitution, is not curtailed or destroyed, but enlarged and strengthened. - : 2 SMOKE. There is one way of reducing smoke here, that is to eliminate the nearly powdered coal which is generally used for furnaces. If lump coal was used, we would still have smoke, but not the kind that the dirty small stuff makes when placed on the fire. To the one who has lived in this city, year in and year out, it is folly to try and convince them that we have less smoke now than we had ten years ago. Any time we have a hard freezing day or night and there is no breeze blowing we are going to have smoke. There is one escape from it and that is electricity and gas with the entire elimination of soft coal. Just how the smoke committee arrives at its figures in the face of some of our smoky mornings is hard to figure. Just the other day it was impossible to see half a block for the dense smoke and weve never had a heavier smoke on any of our winter mornings. Engineers and smoke inspectors will never abate smoke here, but a stiff breeze clears the atmosphere in half an hour. Quite an effort is being made by those holding smoke jobs but it is an unnecessary expense when the fact is considered that there are only a few weeks in the year when we have any smoke. No one can muzzle the smokestacks and soft coal makes plenty of smoke, and during cold and freezing days all the people bum soft coal. 35 ss a6 5s SCHOOLS AND TAXES. A unique .situation arises in schools vs. taxes in Utah county. It appears that the tax assessment of the Columbia Steel corporation was reduced by $250,000. Attorney General Harvey H. Cluff of Utah has notified C. N. Jensen, state superintendent of public instruction, that if the assessed reduction materially effects the Nebo school district, that the Utah county .commissioners must raise the levy t T" provide for the deficit. No doubt the officers of the Columbia Steel corporation have shown the county commissioners where in their assessed valuation has been unjustly established at too high a figure, hence the reduction. However, it appears that the school officials based their outlay upon an unjust high tax and are spending the school money accordingly. It appears as if the school boards could spend all the money the people earn; they never have enough and the sky is their limit. What would the school system do if the Columbia Steel corporation should close down, and what did they do before this large corporation opened its business? If half the people in Utah county were to turn their holding-ove- r to the state and leave the county, would the school board still wish to maintain its present high cost system? At any rate, it is quite wrong to tax business people, or for that matter to tax anyone, extra in order to raise school money. Every- - |