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Show I I. W. PA1AN I STILL WORKING IP I Encouraged to Believe Sale of ml 'Surplus Lands Can be I I Accomplished. 5 ALL UP TO LOCAL LAND OWNERS NOW J, 6 Skows What the Interesting of New S Settlers in Valley Will Mean . ", for This Section. y The following letter addressed to f Hon. John Parry of this city is sclf- explanatory, and ia along the lino of ' t' the article that appeared in The Rec- a ord last week. It was handed to us f by Mr. Parry with tho request that t the same bo given publicity: Salt Like City, Utah, March 28. I Mr. John Parry, Cedar City, Utah. , p. Dear Friend. According to promise, .' i I write you progress on the matter of working up sales of lands in your valley. I havo been in conference with one California outfit and one 7 eastern one, who think they can bring ' in Bettlers, if we can get the right t kind of a base on which to work. None 'v of these concerns care to consider a j proposition of this kind unless there '- are enough lands available to make it worth while, as there is such a tremendous tre-mendous expenso to get the working machinery into shape and to do tho preliminary advertising and work in assembling the working force. It costs practically as much to sell 10,- 000 acres as it would to sell 20,000, so tf far as the preliminary expenso goes. m Twenty Thousand Acres Needed. T j This being the case, -we will want to - Wit''neplsn' if not quite the 20,000 r' ' have promised us their assistance, but they, too, say we ought to get prac- i , tically 20,000, I know the land is : ' there and that tho people can spare f it and more, too, and thon have plenty for themselves and families; and if , tho proposition is to materialize, the land owners must bo liberal in listing , largo tracts of their lands. I am do- ing all I can to holp the matter along, J and havo enlisted some vital forces, and things look encouraging to me, 'Va1-' from this end. If the proposition fails, I feel it will not be because we cannot get tho sot- i tiers on tho lands, but it will bo be- -1 cause tho people there are not rcspon- I sive. When I was there it appearod f to me that tho people were about ripo l for such a movement, and I feel quite J encouraged, and feel that we can make i i it go with the people, if only we can - get them together on tho number of V , acres and got the price so it will bo , attractive to, tho men that havo tho !, -placing of tho settlers on the lands. ', Urged to List Lands Liberally. w I would like for you to dp all you , , ' can to help the movement by putting in about 1,000 acres of your meadow lands and getting Gordello Brown and a number of your relatives and friends t to list with you. If this is done, I feel 1 , that others will be encouraged to come . , in and wo will then get enough to- .i . gether to make it go, and thereby 1 bring prosperity to your section. It means 200 more families of a good 1 type and a great development of your n lands, making tho remainder of your ' lands worth double to treble within v three to four years. ( If the people could only know what this means to your section there would be no trouble in getting the lands, on a basis that they will bo protected, and a selling ngency have time and i protection in bringing settlers on them. lv .Will Bring Railroad to Cedar City. ' 'r"T Mr. Manderfield of the Salt Lake Routo has promised all tho help his I road can give, and made tho state- ment that, as soon as wo get the 200 I families into the valley and working J , on tho lands, the railroad will com- I monco laying track to Cedar City; so I you Bee it will bring a great era of I I prosperity to you people just tho " thing you havo been striving for and I wanting for years. Just as soon as I can develop a little lit-tle more at this end, I want to come j . down to Cedar prepared to get you people together and have you sign up, ! and by that time wo will havo our I . working plan pretty well matured, so i we will bo able to tell you just what ' . fejkurts will bo wanted on the part of J the contracts, options, etc. You have always been a pusher for good things, and I want you to stand by this movement, as tho most promising prom-ising thing that has come to you, for it seems that now is the right time for this movement to precede other events that will shortly follow, to make a great country in the Cedar and Parowan vallics. I asked Gron. Parry to keep a watch on matters there and do what he could to push the proposition, by encouraging encourag-ing the land owners to list their lands, and I wish you would let him read this letter and work with,ryou"'to""crente the right kind of a sentiment with the people. Tell the people to send their listings to mo at Nephi, as much of tho advancement here depends on the kind of responses I get from tho land owners. Wo havo less than half enough now listed, so you see we will want all we can get. We ought to be ready for tho options to bo signed within three to five weeks. Again I ask you to consider the matter of your listing at least 1,000 acres of your meadow lands and a lot of your brush lands. It will help tho cause, and I feel bo a blessing to you, in that it will relieve you of some burden. I assure you I appreciate your interest in-terest in my work in the past and hope to merit your confidence in tho future. With kindest regaids to yourself and family, I remain, Very truly your friend, .T W. PAXMAN. P. S. Write me at 701 East, 9th South, Salt Lake City. Will be here until after conference. The Record wishes to urge that the people of tho Cedar Valley, and particularly par-ticularly those who have largo holdings hold-ings of unimproved land, give careful consideration to tho article which appeared ap-peared in our Inst issue nnd tho letter printed on this page today, from Mr. J. W. Paxmnn, in relation to the listing list-ing of surplus land and the advertising advertis-ing of the same, with a view to getting additional settlers in hero to develop tho country with us. For a good many yenrs now we have been struggling along to keep things going and hold onto a large acreage of land for tho sake of our posterity, and with tho idea that it would some day becomo very valuable, (which is no doubt true) borrowing money on tho land in a vory great many instances in-stances and working our heads off to keep up tho interest payments, with no possiblo prospect, apparently, of meeting the principal. At tho Bamo time playing the part of the "dog in tho manger" nnd preventing people able and anxious to dovclop tho land from doing so; thus holding back every ev-ery business enterprise launched in our locality, and blocking tho way u-galnst u-galnst the building of a railroad for this section. Such a course is nonsensical in tho extreme, nnd now that an opportunity is at hand for unloading a portion of our holdings and providing monoy for the development of the balnnce, tho pooplo should not bo slow in availing j themselves of it. I "Yos," we hear some say, "but wo can get more for our land by holding it. It will be worth more than thoy will pay for it now." Quito true, but can you tell just how long you will have to hold it in order to obtain the price you feel that it should bring you? And in tho mean time is it not true that you are retarding the development devel-opment of tho entire valley by holding hold-ing on indefinitely to something that you aro unablo to make use of? And thus standing in your own light as well as that of tho balanco of the community. com-munity. Of course, wo do not advlso anyone to list Jand that they aro putting put-ting to a beneficial use, or which they aro in a position to use in tho near future to advantage. But the curso of this country, and the mill stone which is dragging it down Is the appropriated ap-propriated but unimproved property, both farm and city, and if people will neither use nor sell it, the assessment for taxes should bo increased to such an extent as to mako it unprofitable to hold it. For our part wo believe that tho people should give Mr. Paxman an opportunity of exploiting and placing settlers on a largo portion of the land of this valley which is now lying idle. More population will mean greater prosperity for everyone, and is ono of tho commodities wo need most. |