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Show At The Crossroads From November Issue Intermountain Business With each passing month or week, the problems lacing any widespread industrialization of Utah', become more evident. That Industrialization is vital to growth, that it must come to pass If we, as a state, are to assume our proportionate position posi-tion In the rising 11-state Indus trial west, has long been obvious. IX we, as a people, If our legislators, legisla-tors, our taxing bodies, our owners of land do not take every opportunity oppor-tunity to promote conditions Inviting new Industries that might establish plants here, or to already nnflraMno Industries that need to compete In larger markets If they are to expand ex-pand and thus be able to provide greater employment, we can be certain cer-tain we won't push ahead In our proper place In the economic sun. It must be recognized that the Intermountain market is small, and that few sizable industries can operate op-erate profitably within this market. They must compete in other markets, mar-kets, but to do this they cannot be hand-cuffed by exorbitantly high prices for sites, by taxes that stifle any plans to expand, and by li eight rates which, of course, make higher prices to the ultimate consumers con-sumers Inevitable, thus creating a competitive hurdle that is simply to great to overcome. We had concrete evidence of this freight rate condition only last month when the Mantl plant of the Reliance Manufacturing company, makers of certain types of men's and women's clothing, was closed as an impossible profitable operation. opera-tion. Reliance operates a number of plants in various sections of the country, mostly in the east and south, but found the shipping of raw materials to Utah and the sending send-ing of the finished products to eastern east-ern markets more than traffic would bear. E. T. Carlie, company representative representa-tive from Chicago, who came to Utah to close the plant, which was being leased from the state, pointed out that DO per cent of the plant's finished products were shipped east of Denver for retail and that 80 per cent of the output was sold east of the Mississippi Resultant Increases in costs to retailers- and increased in-creased freight rates, paid both on raw materials shipped to Mantl from east of the Rocky Mountains and on finished products shipped to eastern markets, were declared to be the chief contributory factor to closing the Wasatch plant The forced shutdown of afactory jphlch, at peak production, employed employ-ed some 300 workers, gives a clear-cut clear-cut picture of one of the handicaps our Industrial development is up agalnst-hlgh freight rates which bring high costs to retailers in a competitive market. Unless freight costs can be brought down materially, mater-ially, and there is no reason to believe be-lieve this is going to be done, at least for a long time, we might as well realize right now that our industrial in-dustrial development has to be based on utilization of raw materials found here', or in the manufacture of articles from local raw materials which can bt disposed of in the markets of the area. In this latter field, Industry, of course, would be limited in size because the market is limited. It has become fairly obvious, then, that our greatest opportunities, the greatest hope for an sizeable industrial indus-trial future" lies in the processing of raw materials of which, in many categories, we have an abundance. We have iron ore, coal, metals and minerals in almost countless variety, varie-ty, sugar, wool and other raw products pro-ducts which we must exploit and process if we are to assume and hold our proportionate Importance In the rising economic tide that has already registered such wide gains throughout the coastal states. All the back-slapping in the world, all the wishful thinking, aU the bragging we may do about our resources, re-sources, our people, our climate, our scenery, our living conditions, will not bring us one manufacturing plant if the operator, after cold-turkey cold-turkey investigation, finds such operation op-eration could not be made profitable profit-able because of the handicaps we have to recognize as ours. As a Telegram Tel-egram editorial writer said recently, we can't industrialize from the top down. All signs point to the logical conclusion con-clusion that if we expect any place in the industrial sun, we'd better begin, with Intensified will,! the wide exploitation of the many j resources we have at hand, taking It step by step, right here at home, up to the final process of fabrication fabrica-tion of products for the market If that is done, some plants, because of the nature of their output, could compete profitable in outside markets. mar-kets. Others, with sales that might be confined to the Intermountain area, probably covild, by virtue of; lower operating costs, take leadership leader-ship away from outside concerns now shipping competitive products into the area. |
