OCR Text |
Show , A WAIL FROM SALT LAKE. Surprising beyond belief is the following often acknowledgment acknowledg-ment of distress in Salt Lake, appearing in the editorial column of the Salt Lake Herald-Rtpublican, under the heading ."Empty Houses In Salt Lake": A real estate man said that he had ridden the other day by street car from one end of the city to the other on one car line and had counted forty-two vacant houses. A bystander by-stander asked him what line it was. and was told. The latter lat-ter then said that he had observed the same thing on another an-other car line, and had counted up to fifty on a ride of half way through the city. That little conversation reveals a situation situ-ation which every citizen of Salt Lake ought to view with concern. It will not help at all to ignore it; it will not change the situation for us to shut our eyes to the truth, and say that Salt Lake is growing as it ought to be. At last comes the frank confession that the boom has fallen flat and that Salt Lake is a city of empty houses. Going back two years, let us recall that the Standard warned Bait Lake against an inflation and, at the same time, cautioned our own real estate men not to persist in following the example of the boomers of Zion, but to proceed along sane and sensible lines in the upbuilding of this city. Salt Lake is now suffering of its folly, while Ogden, because of its refusal to be carried away by the boom tpirit, is entering into the enjoyment of the most substantial, vigorous vig-orous period of advancement in all its history. The contrast is most impressive. People moving from Salt Lake to Ogden say they can scarcely realize the vast difference in the business atmosphere of the two cities Salt Lake depressed; Ogden energetically pushing ahead. One of the greatest blunders made in Salt Lake was the building of the skyscrapers. Those tall structures of Newhouse are monumental monu-mental notice to all visitors that the buildings were erected without the call of necessity, as all around them are shacks and tumbledown tumble-down structures, indicating cheap land and the absence of an excuse for reaching skyward. False booming, now and then, wins a temporary advantage, but in this intermountain country there must be something more than the beating of tom-toms and an outward show of finery to permanently permanent-ly advance a city. We regret the rattle of dry bones in Salt Lake, but sooner or v later the cadaver presented by the Herald-Republican would have become be-come evident, and it is just as well that the paper did its. own ex- posing instead of waiting for the relic of adversity, dangling, skeleton-like, on every block, to be discovered by the most casual observer who might visit that city. |