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Show WHAT IS MOST NEEDED From the morning paper this comment com-ment is taken: "The Standard stopped fighting publio improvements Inst evening just long enough to nga;n take credit for the paving of South Washington avenuo. It is enough to make oven Pat Moran's steam shovel laugh!" Pat Moran's steam shovel has never stopped laughing slnco it loft Salt Lake last spring, accompanied by an army which answers to the command of the boss. The Standard has ncvor fought public pub-lic Improvements excopt where rank Injustice was being perpotrated. It is not so long ago that the people have forgotten the history of the paving program pro-gram in Ogden, but it may be woll to refresh their memory. The city started out to force the property owners along South Washington Wash-ington avenuo to pave that wide street without assistance, and tho property owners rebelled and proceeded to block the mayor by presenting a pro-tost. pro-tost. Then Moroni Skeen, who has gained an enviable reputation as a road builder, pointed out that by giving giv-ing tho state Jurisdiction, money from tho sUito road fund could be obtained. The mayor resented the suggestion, claiming tho work would be delayed two years, but tho people persisted and finally under the hammering of Tho Standard tho mayor yielded with tho understanding that the city have jurisdiction. Tho mayor 3eomed more concerned over the question of jurisdiction juris-diction than that of tho welfare of tho property owners, and with Jurisdiction went the awarding of the contract Had the mayor not been brushed aside by the property owners In their appeal to the stato road commission, that part, of Washington might have (remained the strolch of bumps and holes it had been for two years or more. The Standard claims to have been, a very big faolor In overcoming tho mayor's obstructlvo tactics and In making possible the bringing to tho aid of the property owners the thousands thou-sands of dollars set aside by tho stato, which assured the heavy construction work. In the Twenty-eighth street district Tho Standard objected to the methods employed; to the coercing And browbeating. brow-beating. Tho Standard always has led in advocating ad-vocating timely and well-directed improvements, im-provements, but Tho Standard has nover stood for that which is unfair In dealing with the home owners. At the time the city was pushing its Twenty-oighth street demands, there were Innumerable blocks of roadway over which an automobile could scarcely travel, in tho vory heart of the city's traffic, and no move was made to improve thoso neglected chuckholes. A side street was selected select-ed and, when tho home builders had secured an overwhelming protest, the devious, sinuous ways of the quirks of tho law wero resorted to in order to gain a whip hand. Furthermore, at the time the extraordinary extra-ordinary campaign was on, the government gov-ernment had warned the country that loyal service demanded that able-bodied men, in greater number than wero absolutely necessary, should not be drawn from the essential lines of industry, in-dustry, to do work which could bo postponed, and responding to that highly patriotic sentiment the people of Salt Lake deferred $1,300,000 of city Improvements and even kept their city improvements below normal. The Standard is not only for Improvements, Im-provements, but holds to this: Improvements must be made with wisdom and due regard for the external exter-nal fitness of things, and not by a rule of hit or miss. Improvements, when properly directed, di-rected, carry with them the heart and soul of a community, which after all Is the greatest requisite to a. progressive, progres-sive, enthusiastic upbuilding, irrepressible irrepres-sible people. |