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Show THE CITIZEN 5 Folly to Raise Assessment informed men will agree with J. C. and A. G. MacKenzie that it is folly to raise the mine tax assessment from three to six times the net proceeds. Competent evidence seems to indicate that the mines of Utah are at present bearing a just proportion of the tax burden. As a matter of fact, mine taxes are higher in Utah than in any other western state except Arizona. They are 37.93 per cent higher than in Montana, 54.44 per cent higher than in Idaho and Colorado and 58.99 percent higher than in Nevada. Furthermore, mining is a wasting asset operation. Once an ore body is exhausted, nothing remains but a useless cavity in the earth, which cannot be put to further use. For this reason, a great percentage of the capital taken from a mine, together with new money, must be put back into the enterprise, for exploration, development and research, which alone can perpetuate the industry. Thus a tax of three per cent, as at present levied, in reality produces an assessment of from 92 to 109 per cent of the actual value of the property, based upon dividend records and probable productive life. In view of these facts, any effort to increase the assessment levy against mines in this state yrould automatically curtail the activities of the industry. Utah could not afford this eventuality. Mining is the keystone of our industrial activity. We do not need to paint a colorful panagyric of it to convince a reasonable man that without mining the development of the state would be WELL impaired. Mining supplies the most important home market for agriculture. It is our greatest consumer of labor, and at present pays a great proportion of our taxes. A 10 per cent reduction in the metal mines payroll would mean a loss to the laboring men of Utah of about $2,000,000 yearly. On the contrary, mining and allied industries must be fostered, in order that additional capital and industries may be attracted here. It is well known among those familiar with conditions in the industry that Utah properties fast are approaching the time when, in order to remain in operation, ores of decreasing value per ton must be mined and treated. The cream of the industry has been skimmed. The lower grade and complex ores remain. Much has been done by metallurgy to reclaim these ores and to produce many millions of dollars from them. But the greatest efforts must be made in the future. In the face of this, must also be remembered that rich bodies of metallic ores are being opened in other parts of the world. Products from these mines will enter the market and , increase the difficulty of profitably treating Utah ores. By far the greatest strides in the development of Utah must come from the establishment, here, of factories to utilize our raw materials. Most of these resources must be reclaimed by mining before they are available for treatment alumiand fabrication. Coal, the num, phosphates these and many other products might be kept in the ground forever for want of capital to develop them. (0 If, however, we recognize that mining, and other industries need encouragment, and that, if they can be induced to expand in Utah, the taxable wealth of the state will increase. More money will be available for public and private hydro-carbon- s, use. Public opinion Letters to Public Opinion are to be addressed to The Citizen, 420 Ness Building, Salt Lake City. They are to be written on one side of the paper, and are not to exceed 250 words. Constructive criticism is sought on affairs concerning business, political and social . Letters should be signed, and if desired to appear under another name, that should be designated. development. Editor The Citizen: Why not creat a momentum for a real city Civic Center by Cleaning out the property facing the City and County square and there erecting such civic structures as the new Federal Office, Soldier Memorial, Civic Auditorium, Art Gallery, Hall of Justice, Community Theatre, Public Library, Convention Hall, etc. A fine beginning was made in the early nineties by the erection of the City and County building. Then why not plan grand boulevards from this center to the great Southeast and Southwest, maybe also Northwest. Such an able champion of public welfare as yourselves could put this over. If we let the world see our greatness we wont have to tell them so much. Lets not crowd the Federal Building into Main Street or the Soldiers Memorial into the gully off upper State Street. Subscriber. . Utah Firm Scores TMARK down another credit mark to the J. G McDonald Chocolate company. And this time the mark comes all the way from Paris. The tariff is now a burning issue in Congress and speaking as an ultimate consumer, so far as we are concerned they can put a prohibitive tariff on spinach and carrots. It is the awarding of the grand prize, with gold medal, at the International Exposition for 1928. The announcement of the award was received by J. G. McDonald, president, recently from the International Expositions, In- Over a Barrel the APPARENTLY Utah is over a barrel in matter. With pressure from the lower basin states for ratification, and with additional word from the Secretary of the Interior that Utahs demands in the matter are uncertain of fulfillment at best, the state faces the delemma either of withholding ratification of the pact with no assurance of reward for further delay, or of ratifying the six state pact and accepting what appears to be inevitable. The House has taken the first step with an overwhelming vote of ratification of the six state pact without reservations. The matter now is up to the Senate. If there is a possible avenue of assurance for the good of the state through construction of dams at Flaming Gorge or Dewey, The Citizen sincerely hopes that the necessary steps to secure those advantages will be taken. Utah has made a long and a hard fight for rights on the Colorado which should, by all means, belong to it. If the dam goes through without providing for construction of those two Utah dams, it is a question if Utah ever shall get water rights on the river. And it is certain that Utah needs more water power for electrical energy. Further expansion of the state industrially is contingent on the securing of cheap power. Othewise, expansion definitely is limited. And so, though Utah stands in an extremely awkward position, The Citizen hopes that the Senate will not ratify the Houses action until exhaustion of every possible means of assuring Utah protection of its water heritage. With What Result? COAL men of the state have called a Salt Lake Coal Burning exposition in Salt Lake from March 8 to 17 for the purpose of studying coal burning and coal burning conditions in an effort to develop smokeless consumption of coal in this city as well as elsewhere. Leaders of the industry throughout the state are to attend, and the best scientific minds of the West will be turned towards solution of the problem. We hope that the exposition meets with success. Certainly, it is a commendable step towards ridding the city of its annual winter scourge, a condition accentuated this winter by the unusually long cold season. Utahs coal men, who control one of the states major industries, have the right idea. For it is evident that coal must be a clean fuel in order to exist for any length of time in the residences of an urban population centered as much as this population is here. If definite progress is made at the exposition, it will be notable as a step forward, together with other agencies, in ridding Salt Lake of one of its most disliked conditions. The Citizen hopes that the honest effort of the coal men will be met with notable results. ' corporated. The diploma, certificate of admission, certificate of award, decoration and medal are to be forwarded shortly. International recognition is becoming increasingly difficult to attain, and the fact that the worlds finest is made in Salt Lake should awaken a considerable degree of pride in Utahns generally as well as in the firm itself. Some impressionable, feminine hearts have ceased to flutter and have returned to the normal thumping of uneventful times now that Colonel Lindbergh is definitely known to be en gaged to Miss Morrow. However, since those universal flutterings aroused by the persons and deed of heroes just come and go like fashions in this and that the hope for other crushes need not be a forlorn one in the breasts of womankind. The intensity of it, too, is rather earnest. Which recalls that Judge , some months ago, accurately reflected tne popular emotion in an amusing caption to a comic picture of a typical sheik proposing to an equally typical flapper. The flapper says: Listen, do you suppose I'm going to bind myself to marry YOU, you SAP! when Lindbergh is still single? long-distan- ce This is the season, but nothing can be done about the truck that gets ahead of you in traffic. Toledo Bladq. hog-killi- ng One kind of jam that is not popular with the housewife especially about six oclock in the evening is the traffic jam. France and Italy are said to be engaging in a little naval rivalry of their own. Here is something for our pacificsts to look after now that they are out of a job at home. |