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Show Business Conditions. ' B-USIXESS -conditions in Salt Lake City are bettej; .today than, at any time 'in ' "its " history There are more Y'cor'lej more" money "in "circulation, "circula-tion, and more solid business being done than e.vjer befare. The merchants report trade as fair, with collections good, . notwithstanding .the fact that the weather has been unpropitious. Prices of all kinds are high, and Avages have kept "pace with' the' -inere'asee. Bricklayers are in demand at $5 per day, as compared with $3 formerly, and wages of carpenters have increased from 30 to 45 cents per hour. Mining is carried on more extensively than ever before, and legitimate work in this direction has yielded handsomely hand-somely within the past few- years. The j wildcat stock schemes have fallen into I disfavor, and rightly so. Foolish people peo-ple who rushed into the purchase of mining stocks have learned a bitter lesson. They have seen their money transferred to the pockets of the stock jobbers, and while the gambling instinct in-stinct will always induce some to continue con-tinue at it, yet the victims are now-few now-few and far between. The recent exposures ex-posures of the scandalous methods employed em-ployed to boom stocks on the stock exchange, ex-change, have opened the eyes of many to the dangers of this sort of gambling. The real estate market is quiet, but healthy. There is ' not so much real estate changing hands, nor at such fancy prices, as during the boom of , 1SS9-90, and it is better so. Real estate es-tate nowadays is purchased for actual use, for the erection of business blocks or houses, to be occupied by the owners own-ers or rented. The prices are based upon the amount of income produced, and the purchaser must be convinced that it will yield a fair return on the investment, before he can be induced to buy. This keeps prices steady, and there is no danger of a slump when prices are governed by such rules. There is a fair demand for money at reasonable rates on mortgages, for the erection of buildings and houses. Most of the buildins is of homes; and this is always a good indication of the solid growth of a city. It is much better than speculative buying, where the speculator buys a piece of ground and lets it lie unimproved, merely waiting for a rise in price. The home builder goes ahead with the building of a house, and if it is necessary to borrow ! the money, he can easily pay it back by setting aside what would otherwise go for rent. Moneyed people are glad to get such securities, as they have always proved to be safe, and are easily looked after. The bank clearances keep well up, and this fact, taken in connection with the falling, off in fictitious stock deals, indicates a, large increase in legitimate business. Conservative estimates place the actual growth in the population of Salt Lake City at fully 20 per cent within the last two .years. This has been going on quietly and steadily, and the new arrivals have come to stay. The immense smelters lately built near Murray, within ten miles of Salt Lake City, will give employment to an army of men, which means many thousands of dollars annually to the merchants, j The payroll is always regarded as the best factor in the upbuilding of a city. Taken all in all, Salt Lake City has as bright a future as any city in the country today. I |