The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-12

TO say that these possessions of the farm
ing population were less than ten times
greater than the permanent possessions of
the miners here. Finally, there is one
method less uncertain, perhaps, than any
other, and is furnished by the census of
1880. until that of 1890 is rsady; for it is
not likely that the relative Importance of
these industries has greatly changed since
then.
By the census Of 1880 there were engaged
in gainful occupations of all kinds in Utah
4O,G55 persons. OF these 1850 were en-
gagged in agriculture. including 4.137 farm
ers and planters, $3.50 gardeners and
nurserymen, 1,22S stock raisers, ETC. Agri-
culture thus engrosses over SO per cent. of
the working population.
There were 6,912 day laborers, 4,149 per-
sons engaged in trade and transportation,
and next come the miners, 1862 in number.
the sixth on the list, or, counting all of agri-
culture as one occupation, the miners come
fourth on the list And this number in
cludes coal miners as well as those who
mine for gold and silver.
The miners of all kinds comprise per
cent. of the working population. Agricul-
ture employs six times as many men in this
territory as mining does; day labor en-
ploys nearly three times as many men as
mining does; and trade and transportation
nearly twice as many as mining.
Carpenters, blacksmiths and masons in
this territory are as numerous as the gold
and silver miners, and get as high or higher
thop ho IS
their wages is spent right here. What
would be thought if a member of one of
these trades should declare they consti-
tuted the leading industry of Utah, or that
the prosperity of the territory was due
wholly TO theml
The fact is that the prosperity of the
territory is due to all of its industries and
not TO any one of them; but the leading in
dustry is agriculture, the next is trade and
and transportion, the next is day labor, the
next is mining. Leaving out day laborers,
there are more than twice as many persons
engaged in professional and personal ser
vice in Utah as there are in mining, and
their wages are all spent here.
1t is unnecessary to follow this line of
investigation any further Nor do we see
how any sensible man can believe that the
industry which employs only per cent of
the working population of Utah is greater
than an industry which employs SO per cent.
OF the working population or that it "sup-
ports" the other "a per cent. For the min
ing industry is the only one in which the
profits are sent to other cities and only the
wages of the miners are spent here. In the
other Industries, both the profits and the
wages are invested here. What mining
could do and what it does do for this terri
tory are very different propositions
There are perhaps 10000 adult males in
this city, all of them earning livelihood
Suppose we put their average earnings at
$1,000 per annum for each, and this would
perhaps not be far from the truth. Think
how the Learned length and laundering
sound' of 100000 year in wage earn
ings, all spent right here, would amaze the
thoughtless reader. We could thus
prove by odds of three to one against the
mining proof that the prosperity of Utah
is all due to this city, or Ogden, or to other
places. And this is precisely the extent of
the alleged 'proof" that mining supports
every other industry.