OCR Text |
Show FIGURES WONT LOUT The Salt Lake Tribune of the 25th contained three articles which are of interest to Southwestern Utah. One .on Zion canon, one on the records kept of auto travel into the state, and the other on the road question; all three directly connected as to the relation of Salt Lake with Southern utah. The record of auto travel is kept in Salt Lake at the Utah State automobile auto-mobile association office, and shows the tourist registration by months, over what road the tourist arrived and how long they remained in the state, with an estimate of daily ex-pendatures. ex-pendatures. The figures given are in part as follows: Total registration .8569 Total days in state 55,829. Entered State via: Pikes Peak Highway from West 370 Lincoln Highway from W 887 Midland Trail from W .... 216 Arrowhead Trail from WT. 311 These are the roads over which the bulk of the California tourists travel. Average expenses per day $5.00 These records over a period of 10 months. How accurate the records are we are unable to tell, but we take it for granted that they are compiled from the books of the association in Salt Lake. The assumption is also made that only one tourist out of four would find it convenient to register, consequently con-sequently the author of the article lias multiplied everything by four. Now what do the people of Southern South-ern Utah think of the fairness of using records kept, in Salt Lake as to the volume of travel over the Arrowhead Ar-rowhead trail, 35 0 miles from where that travel enters the State?. And what do they think of using those figures to combat the improvement of the Arrowhead trail. Does any one outside the author of the article arti-cle believe the figures are fair. Does anyone from the southern boundry of Salt Lake State to Arizona believe be-lieve them? In one day alone 17 cars with Kansas licences, carrying 71 people passed through Beaver and but few of them went to Salt Lake; most of them going by way of Pro-vo, Pro-vo, Soldier's Summit, and some via Cove Fort to Price. And yet the record rec-ord shows only 311 entered Utah by way of the Arrowhead trail. This number they conveniently multiply by four. Figures won't lie, but Is it fair to compare the registration of travel recorded at Salt Lake, as representing represent-ing the number of entrances into the State of Utah. Not unless you believe with the Tribune, that Salt Lake county is the whole state of Utah. The travel arriving from the West enters Utah over the very worst part of the state and sees nothing except ex-cept desert until it reaches Salt Lako It has had no opportunity to stop or to scatter to other points, or to even ev-en spend a dollar until it reaches there and the first thing they naturally natu-rally would do, is to go to the headquarters head-quarters of the auto club and register, regis-ter, perhaps a kick, but travel over the Arrowhead trail must pass over 350 miles of the State, some of tho best towns, and through prosperous farming communities with roads equal eq-ual to any dirt roads in the world. With numerous points of attraction attrac-tion all along the way, with many many causes to make them prolong pro-long their stay in the state, there is Zion Canon. Brices Canon, Clear Creek Canon, Provo Canon. Puffer's Lake. Cedar Breaks and Kent's Lake, all within easy reach of the Arrowhead trail, any one of which would justify a traveler in spending a few extra days for his own benefit bene-fit r.nd the benefit of the state. But Mr. Rishel of the Tribune does not want the travel to come in that way because it would have a chance to drop a few dollars into the pockets pock-ets of the garage men and hotel worn en r.nd merchants of the remainder of the state, before reaching Salt Lake City. He says Misdirected energy "The chief reason why the road; ! have not been improved is the diver-i diver-i sity of opinion as to where hard sur-I sur-I face roads should be built. This dl ' versity of opinion is the result chief ly of -IGNORANCE. Many well mean ing, public spirited men have given money and time to promoting roads which are not of major importance. These mistakes have hindered etc.'' Ye gods misguided Jo Mander-field. Mander-field. Governor Spry, Wilford Day, Chas. Bigelow, W. W. Wyley, our State Highway commission, Mayor Jones of Cedar City, Lafayette Han-chitt. Han-chitt. Poor Ignorant mortals, wait 'till they find out that they are stand Ing In the way of the progress of the state, and see how quickly they will step down and ask for rooms at Provo. Pro-vo. That any paper should publish an article so biased and so to the detriment detri-ment of one of the big parts of the state, is to be regretted, but let us see what Vice-President F. C. Schramm Sch-ramm of the Salt Lake commercial club said at a meeting held to celebrate cele-brate the birth of the Zion National Park: "9200 people left Salt Lake City over the Arrowhead trail for the west It is a road, he said, which can be used nearly the whole year round. He pointed out that the Park was but a short ride from the trail. He called attention to how California advertised its scenery and its roads, and said Utah must do likewsie. Give the world a chance to come over ov-er good roads. Poor, misguided man standing in the way of progress. The Arrowhead trail is a road which gives giv-es an outlet to Salt Lake State at times of the year when it needs it most. We would not put one word or one argument against the desirability desirabil-ity of having a road to San Francisco Francis-co and the northwest, but even if the Arrowhead trail reached only to St. George, and not a car a "Tbnth ever came in from California, that road would be the most important road that could be buiit south or west of Salt Lake, and the sooner . the Tribune realizes this fact, the . better It will be. |