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Show "WHAT AILS UTAH?" Six months ago this paper called attention to certain conditions which presaged an era of unprecedented un-precedented prosperity for Utah. The article was criticized by many as being too optimistic and overly sanguine. These "shadows before," cast by the ""coming events," were plainly decipherable, and in any other community would have aroused unbounded un-bounded enthusiasm. The ultra conservatism of Utah, however, was incredulous, and, like the man from Missouri, "had to be shown." But within the past six weeks the people have- awakened to the fact that the events themselves were upon us, and the daily papers now contain in each issue accounts ac-counts of transactions demonstrating the truth of our predictions. . This era of growth and prosperity has fairly j set in. Business of all kinds is better than ever before, real estate is changing hands at increasing prices, hundreds of new homes and buildings are in course of construction, money is pouring into the city and state from other places, mining is more active and productive than ever neiore, me bank deposits have increased enormously, and all along the line is indicated a long period of solid prosperity. Chief among the factors causing this activity are the new railroads the arteries of modern business. bus-iness. One of these arteries connecting this City with t he Pacific Ocean is now in vf till operation. This road was long wished for, the people realized real-ized the immense benefits which would accrue to this City from it, they knew'that it was in course of actual construction, and yet they had to see it in actual operation before they would believe it to be an assured fact. This conservatism is a safety safe-ty brake, which, while it prevents swift progress, at the same time guards against reactions. Xow, however-, that the road is in full operation, with long trains of the finest cars in the world, the actual ac-tual benefits are being felt, and the prosperity and growth will be all the more sure and lasting for not having been discounted beforehand. Construction work has actually becrun on an other great ar.tery, connecting this city with San Francisco the Xew York of the Pacific Coast. This will make a competing line for freight and passenger traffic, besides opening up rich mining and agricultural regions locally. A third railroad, the M"offat line, is pushing its steel westward over the Rocky Mountains, steadily toward this City. Both of these roads are just as sure of being in actual operation within the next two years as the San Pdero road is now. Xeither of them can of-ford of-ford to stop, and they will prove enormously profitable pro-fitable to their owners. Any one of these three great roads would be the event of a generation for a City like Salt Lake, and would give an immense impetus to business, and arouse great enthusiasm. But all three of them, coming into the city almost simultaneously, is unprecedented in the history of the country. What docs this mean to Salt Lake City? Xot simply ease and convenience of travel, not simply sim-ply busy depots and hotels crowded with tourists. These things arc important, and bring in hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of dollars annually to the city. But the real benefit comes from the fact that these ! roads traverse the richest mineral regions in the world, which have heretofore been undeveloped because be-cause of lack of railroad facilities. It means long lines of rough looking freight cars, laden with the j treasures of the mountains, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and coal. It means tho return of these cars to the mining camps, laden with merchandise, the products of the factories, machinery, clothing, building material and other things for the prosperous pros-perous thousands engaged in taking the ores from the ground. It means the erection of mor? smelters smelt-ers and and reduction works of various kinds adjacent adja-cent to this city for the treatment of ore?, giving employment to armies of . workmen. Tt means the building of factories to produce the articles needed to supply these armies of workmen and their families, fam-ilies, the building of schoolhouses. business blocks and homes, the construction and extension of street car lines, telephone systems, electric light and j power plants, and all the other concomitants of modem business; each employing its own army cf workmen. AVhere is the money to come from to construct and maintain idl of these enterprises? It is stored up in these grim and barren mountains in the form of metal, and in the fertile and beautiful valleys val-leys in the form of crops; and it requires only the industry and enterprise of ' man to bring it forth. Already the results are seen in the fact thai: work has been started on new smelters which w ill double the facilities for handling ore in this valley, and for ihr trrn vnrtf . 1 e ' i w.v, tun hi, ui umer ores w Micn lotmeriy were sent away for treatment. States cast of the Rocky Mountains, like Iowa, Kansas and Xebraska, were built up entirely on an agricultural basis. If Utah depended entirely upon agriculture, the building build-ing of these roads, in connect :.ou with the irrigation irriga-tion projects now under way, the enormous production produc-tion of crops on irrigated laud, and the peculiar adaptability of the soil to the raising of sugar beets, would mean an .immense growth and upbuilding up-building .of the State. But when, in addition to this, nature has stored up in Utah untold millions of precious metals, yielding enough every year to J enrich an empire, it is difficult to make a comparison compa-rison of its future with that of any other State or country in history. Omaha and Kansas City have grown up as distributing centers of an agricultural region. Denver has grown up as a center of a rich mining region, although surrounded by a sterile country. Los Angeles has grown up as a health resort and the center of fruit raising. Salt Lake City has all of these advantages combined a rich mineral region, the most fertile and productive land in the world, a climate mild, invigorating and healthful, hot sulphur springs surpassing in medicinal medi-cinal qualities any in the country, and located so as to necessarily be the distributing center for the entire Intermountain region. With all of these resources re-sources and advantages, it is no exaggeration to say tliat Salt Lake City should, within the next ten years surpass in size and importance any of the cities named. The 200,000 population mark, which is now thought to be so high, will be reached and passed within the next few years, and the growth of the city will then have only begun. |
