OCR Text |
Show FROM THE SELFISH STANDPOINT. If we reckon from the Desret Bank corner north and south and east and west to include (on both sides of the streets) 10,00tJ rods of streets, and only in the chief business or residence portions por-tions of the city, it is a clear case that this property prop-erty will be worth $100 per rod more on the 8th day of next month if Ezra Thompson is elected mayor than it will be if either Mr. Lynch is elected or Mr. Morris is re-elected. That means that the election of Mr. Thompson means in that item alone, a gain to a part of the property owners own-ers of the city of $1,000,000; that it will cost the property owners $1,000,000 if either Mr. Morris or Mr. Lynch is elected. That may seem like a coldblooded cold-blooded way to state it, but it is the true way. And that is only a beginning. The election of Mr. Thompson would vitalize what is dead now. Men will say such a lot is worth so much money. But can they get it? It has veen worth that much for many years, but has it ever been sold? If forced into the market would ?nere be a scramble scram-ble to buy at that price? We think that every important im-portant sale in the residence district that has been made in the past two years has been due to causes all outside this city. A gentleman comes here to take charge of a great mining company and buys a home, or a man who has children whom he wants to educate has made a sudden fortune outside the city or state, and thinks this place will make a good center for him, and buys or build's a home. But with a real American government here men would make this city a part of their business. They would buy lots and build houses for the money there would be in rents or the advance of the property. Then the owners of material and the men who build houses would come in for their share of profits. There would be something some-thing doing, and before a year the $100 advance per rod would creep up to $200 or $300, or in favored places, much more. And new business houses would be established, and manufactories would come and the place would be famed as a live, progressive place, and more and more people peo-ple would come and Salt Lake would be a real, live, progressive city. So on a purely selfish basis the men of Salt Lake should this year make a supreme struggle for the transformation which is within their reach if they will but do their duty on election day. Will some one tell us? Has Salt Lake done any more than to drift since the day the Honor- H able B. H. Roberts was elected to congrss? It i9H is not true that while the mining and smelting in- 991 terests of the state have advanced mightily, while IH the sugar interest has grown to be a colossal flH industry; while new railroads have been tending !19 this way, and while on the map any business man 'lH can see at a glance that this should be the queen f9 city between Omaha and San Francisco; still has HH the city felt one thrill? Has it not herely '919 drifted? Has not every hope in the minds of hH business men been broken to the heart? And has 'nfll not the reason been palpable enough to every 199 one? Has not the chief one been the knowledge a9 that all the executive and legislative bodies in 9 the state and city wait upon the dictum of a iMH power here whose chief desire and determination iSH has not been to build up either a city or a state, 'IW but a kingdom? Can not that power be thrown jW off here in this city? Cannot the men who own S the city be given a chance to control it, and give Wtm it a chance to expand? '99 |