The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-25

David Day, Salt Lake City, *---- 10000
Brigham Young. jr., Salt Lake City 1000
WOodmanSee Bros, Salt Lake City, 80 5O06
John Swenson, Salt Lake City 3,l00
Lorin Farr, Ogden 1900
d. II. Peery, Ogden 2,oO6
j. L. Horrick, Ogden $50
Chauncy w. West, Ogden 1000
Warren G. Childs, Ogden 1000
William Beardshal, Fairfield 1000
]. R. Stewart, Salt Lake City 1000
&C. ASmuSSon, Salt Lake City ------------ l,5O
Patty Sessions Salt Lake City l,5O
Charles Crismon, Salt Lake City, 1000
William Price, Goshen 1OOO
*Signifies merchandise. u i
Outside of these were host of cash sub
scribers, investing from twenty-five dollars
up to the full share or several, as the case
might be; and all, with the above, taking
this position prior to the commencement of
business in March, 1869. This proportion
of ready cash was the only available
resource for engagements at home or pur
chases abroad until such times as the bust
ness began to move and make its own re-
Turns, or became so known as to secure
desirable credit. Providentially at this
point, every thing at home seemed to favor
the newborn enterprise Contracts were
consummated for excavation and grading,
bridge building, ties and telegraph poles,
until spite of unfair classification and loss
by some contractors, the majority had
means, both for long needed supplies and
something for investment
This was graphically shown in CONVEX
sation had with President Young when the
action of established merchants was prob
lematical, and the great scheme trembled
in the balance. ''If merchants do not
wheel into line" said the writer, 'you can
fall back upon the people; sick of the old
methods of trade, they will furnish the
means" To which came the ever-to- be
remembered and suggestive repl' eff this
is to be the case, the home merchants will
be left out in the cold, and their goods will
remain upon their Shelves"
A thoughtful discretion, coupled with
some certainty of falling market and de-
pleted fortune, led to the consumation:
and as premises We're then just as import
ant part of this project as goods, the two
leading houses sold out, ''stock, lock and
barrel, - placing everything on the scales
at determined rate of freight, and by the
same act Kidding themselves of old, culled
and dead stock, simultaneously with the
new and clean.
Those who did not thus sell entirely ont
furnished their quota as agreed upon, and
received credit on stock or payment as de-
sired, until the multiplicity of organiza
tons throughout the territory pledged to
support and purchase from the parent
organization, gave the first suggestive
glimpses of a comfortable trade, unthought
of by either party, when the change was
first mooted, or after it was set afoot. AS a
consequence it was speedily discovered
that even the lease or rental of the largest
business houses that were bought out were
inadequate, and far from economical, be-
cause of the practical division of the bust
ness, so that early steps were deemed ad
visable, not for concentration alone, but
for character also; because the intent of
the organization was first to be the one
importing house of the territory-the cen
trail supply department for the people.
Yet behind all this Importation, even when
merchandise was being bought in quantity
and shipped in bulk, there lay the ever
present thought of imperative home manu-
facture. 1t was not only seen that single
and supreme importer could materially aid
any struggling local industry, but that by
its facilities for distribution it could do
effectually what private effort could never
hope to accomplish.
1t is interesting to note now how trade
was being affected as the institution, set
tied down to its accepted mission. From
both east and west the overland railroad
was rushing to the centre with competitive
force, and every completed section meant a
dimlnution in freight rates and consequent
change in the values of merchandise of
every character, but more particularly
of heavy and staple goods. The old Mis-
souri, river rate to Salt Lake City had
fiuctuated from fifteen dollars per hundred
to over twenty-five dollars. Yet Z.C.M.l.
had bought all its stock at a rate double
what the completed railroad charged, long
before these stocks were realized upon
Sugar bought and paid for at the rate of
$3.50 per hundred freight, was, much of
it, unsold when rates went down to S.
This was a great strain upon the institu-
ton, but it came out bravely and triumph
antly where personal and limited business
might have collapsed or failed.
Some of the basic ideas of the projectors
of this important movement were to give
stability to the market; to protect the peo-
pie from exorbitant prices, spectators and
corners; to buy in the best markets-meau-
ing from manufacturers and importers
and in distribution, to give to every pur-
chaser all that could be reasonably ex-
pected in exchange for either cash or pro-
duce The days of barter had tried the
patience and the souls of many; the mer-
chant had both ends of the
trade string in his own hands;
he placed a price upon the goods he
held, and he determined the remuneration
of every man by setting the market value
upon what that man PRODUCED and the
genius of the two methods in action be-
came so transparent that patronage fell
naturally TO the parent institution, as it
did to the numberless auxiliaries which
were established in the same spirit when
ever settlement had such need.
The first two and some subsequent years
were, of course, those of anxiety. There
was more or less of an understanding that
this movement was somewhat of an ex-
pertinent; that business men were really
scarce among the "Mormons," and that
employees such as could be had were with
out that training usually found elsewhere.
The magnitude of the project itself, and
the thought of even a fair success meant
that which would outrank all outside and
previous effort, and thus by compulsion it
would tax the financial prudence, fore
thought and ability of officers, no matter