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Show WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH UTAH ASPHALT? Not long ago I had a spasm of printed praise for Utah asphalt. There is a stack of it in rook form on a vacant lot by tho Commercial club. There aro mountains of such stacks in Utah, or at least that claim has been made so oflon, so long and so positively that most of us havo come to treat it as a fact. It is doclarod with oqual emphasis and repetition that this Utah rock asphalt will make tho best and tho choapost pavement ovor trod upon. And yet there is trouble gotting it into u"o. With a view to encouraging the Utah interest, city officials hoi'o lately mako oDligalory tho uso of Utah rock asphalt in city paving. Tho contractors try it, and property owners protest tho result is not satisfactory; that Utah rock asphalt as laid down is not good paving. Advocates Advo-cates of tho Utah article retort that tho contractor con-tractor is prejudiced against tho nativo article, and in favor of an out-of-stato material, and that, in consequence, tho contractor queers tho nativo material in tho mixing. To which tho contractor roplios that ho will gladly adopt any proccess in preparation which will insure good work with tho rock asphalt. Something is wrong. Take tho case of P. J. Moran, tho most prominent contractor in the M city. '' No one has over accused him of business M incapacity. And no one has over convicted him TM of doing inferior work. If ho could got gopd jH pavement with Utah material, ho certainly W would not favor any other kind. And if the H trouble is in mixing tho material, it would H scorn to be up to the rock asphalt people to H show how. If that matorial is all that has been H claimed for it, Salt Lako can be paved from H Warm Springs to Waterloo with Utah material, H and at an attractively low cost. H If it isn't all that has been claimed for it, H now is the time to face the disappointment. H Either that material is usable, or it isn't. H If its ownors want to realize on their investment H they must show cause. Disinclination of a con- H i tractor to buy of them will not answer. Con- H tractors aro human. Also, thoy arc business Rjl men. If there aro "mountains of asphalt in H Utah," and it will make pavement equal to other H accepted pavement, thon contractors will uso it. H And if thcro is such quantity and such H quality as all of us havo hoard and havo hoped, LW Ihon its owners havo only to make proof. It is to be hoped they havo what they M claim; have what thoy believe thoy have. Few Jm things could bo of moro permanent valuo to tho M state. But if it is defective, if in its nature it L can not bo used in pavements thon tho dis- M agreeable truth will havo to bo faced, tho dis- 1 appointment borno. It will bo bitter, but it will mm make the ond of a conflict that is bitterer still. jH |