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Show SOURCE OF UTAH'S WEALTH AGRICULTURE AND MINING DEVELOPING DE-VELOPING RICHES. Governor Wells Tells the New York Tribune a Few Facts About Utah's Prosperity. "Unlike most states of the far west, Utah owes her wealth primarily to agriculture," said the governor of that state recentlv to a New York Tribune reporter. "This statement of mine," Governor Wells continued, "may seem to run counter to the oninion. enter tained by the majority that Utah obtained ob-tained what wealth she possesses from her mines. No; agriculture came first, and the mining industries afterward. This metfhod of development lay in the fact that her first settlers were not seeking so much for wealth as for a home. These pioneers of -whom I siieak soon found tthat the arid waste needed but a little moisture to turn it into a garden of plenty. They learned to husband the waters.of their streams near the mountain, sources, and to let them run forth in times of drouth. Utah, therefore, can boast, of being the pioneer in irrigation. When her people peo-ple had gained wealth in this way they put their capital into mines, thus anticipating anti-cipating the inroads of foreign capital. At the present time, of course, our mines are producing vast riches. The most important economic question with us just now is the ceding of the gov- ernment lands to the state. These are of vast extent, and as yet are entirely uncultivated. It is proposed that the state acquire the ownership of these tracts, that it sell them to private individuals, in-dividuals, and use the proceeds in the construction of mountain reservoirs. By this means water can be stored up and supplied to the inhabitants at a minimum cost. Thousands of acres could thus be reclaimed, and the wealth of the state increased threefold." |
