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Show A The Dam They Damn in Ogden. v I This week has heen a husy one for the franchise fran-chise grabbers. The opposing telephone companies com-panies have each had a whirl at the council and neither knows where it is at. The matter has reached the comical stage, when prominent citizens citi-zens are supposed to butt in and advise the coun-cilmen coun-cilmen from their respective wards. The usual flops from one side to the wrong side have occurred oc-curred and the average inhabitant is working up a bad case of telephonitis. J. Wash Young is the head push of the Bell people, while Mr. Fen-ton Fen-ton is chief bottle holder for the Home company. com-pany. The latter crowd is long on promises of what they propose to do, but J. Wash turns on the hot air and the fight goes on. There will be nothing doing for a week or two, & ? ? The trolley franchise for a line up the canyon has bumped against the same old breaker upon which lie the wrecks of half a dozen erstwhile contemplated roads. The trouble is all on account of the dam in Ogden river at the site of the TJ. L. & P. Company reservoir. At some time in the far distant future the Power company may build a sixty-foot dam across Ogden river and that means that the county road and all other roads would have to climb up the side of a mountain and follow the hills in their tortuous course to get to Ogden valley. And that's the trouble. The trolley line people don't want to build a road up among the cliffs high above the river unless they have to. Moreover, they can't see that the power company is brealdng its neck to get the building of the dam under way, and they have no assurance assur-ance that the dam will ever be built So they stand on the merits of the case and say to the power company to build the dam or stop playing dog in the manger. Another interesting feature of the case is the position the county will take when the power company gets ready to build the dam. There are whole regiments of good people who will object to the expense the county must necessarily incur in building two new roads along the mountain side to reach the towns in the valley. val-ley. And thus the question vacillates. The power company owns the land contiguous to the dam and reservoir so they can make lots of trouble for any trolley company that don't want to come to their terms. The unseemly scramble the Salt Lake morning dailies are engaged in trying to outstrip each other in their catch-as-catch-can struggle for busl-ness busl-ness In the northern part of the state, results in giving Ogden a bum newspaper service. In order or-der to deliver the papers in Ogden before any. thing is awake the aforesaid dailies go to press about 11:30 p. m. and are sent north on the 12:30 train. The result is we get the early telegraph contained in the evening papers, and the staple local stuff that the day reporters grind out. The more important happenings are seldom in the first editions, but instead is dished up the day following, marked from "Friday's Daily," etc. It's water on Bill's wheel, so he don't kick, but the people who pay for the news and don't get it are naturally sore. 5 t5 The changes in the court house were so few this year that the transition was scarcely felt. The commissioners got into harness at once by reap, pointing the old assistants and road supervisors, thereby saving all concerned the trouble a scrap for the positions Would have caused. There was a miniature row in sight when Dr. Forbes was continued con-tinued as county physician, but his opponents were so taken by surprise that they quit in disgust Forbes had got some of the medical fraternity on his trail and they wanted his scalp. He has not been running big enough hospital bills to suit some of his professional brethren, and there is another crowd who thinks the Dr. is too active politically. That he is active is demonstrated by his reappointment. There are the commissioners and they were all for him. t Apropos of Meighan: These is no fixed punishment punish-ment to fit the crime of being a "good fellow" for the reason that the awful consequences generally fall on other heads than those of the good fellow idiots. Good fellows are not made, they develop. Meighan was a good fellow after a fashion. He enjoyed the free and easy liberty it invited and thus became one of Ogden's charter members. He paid his dues with prodigal lavishness and lost a postofllce. He and his are now paying the pound of flesh which all members must sooner or later forfeit. That is the penalty the law cannot Inflict, but which society does. A year and a day for Meighan; a lifetime for his wife and children. A family hearthstone sacrificed on the altar of a good fellow! |