The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-19
"ALL DUE TO MINING.n

The bullion from Utah mines VIII ose
stockholders live in Denver and San Fran
cisco is sent to New York. The pay for
this bullion is sent to the mine owners in
Denver and San Francisco. This money is
spent there in building fine residences or
business blocks.
The rich humor in the following is thus
apparent:
Now what do we exchange except bullion for
the goods the Coop sells: We do not send away
grain, rather we import il. The only
things we export are a few potatoes, good
deal of wool, few hides, some sheep and some
beef cattle. That is all we export except the
bullion from the mines.-ZFibmne
This may be true, but the whole paw for
everything we export except bullion comes
right back here, while the pay for the bull
lion goes to enrich San Francisco, Denver
and other places.
Whatever else may be the pay for our
imports, one thing is certain, viz. that bull
lion Is not the pay for them, since this is
the only article exported from Utah for
which the pay does not return here. Only
enough returns to pay the wages of the
x,
rest goes to the stockholders east and west
of this territory.
Now, since the miners number 6 per cent.
of the working population, it is abundantly
clear that the portion of their wages which
they expend for potatoes and beef, does not
support the other "a per cent. of the popu-
lation, for the same reason, as the darkev
would say, that the tail doesn't wag the
dog. The reader is invited to notice this
argument also:
A man works his little tract of land. What
he sells represents his profits; the rest he
simply eats up. So far as he is concerned
with the public, what he sells represents what
his farm amounts to in the community.
Hold on, boy, what are you talking
about. If farmer employs dozen hands,
rears a large family of his own, keeps a
number Of horses, cows. pigs, poultry. ETC.,
isn't his farm worth anything to the terri
tory? Doesn't it represent precisely its
value Of the accumulated wealth? Does it
not enhance the value Of the property all
around it, Its value is all gain to the man
who develops such farm from the desert
even if he sells only few articles
Really what he sells generally does not
amount to what he buys in the way of Clothing,
little furniture and few groceries like sugar
and salt, alcohol and tea
Good enough. The farmers sell very lit
tie, at best, is the argument of our ratified
contemporary. They sell to the other IS
per cent. Of the people of Utah, besides to
the mining 6 per cent. and also export
good deal. Now the contention of our op-
ponent is that it is the amount they sell to
the mining per cent. that does everything
for them, and the amount they sell to the
IS per cent. and the amount they export
combined amount to nothing. If they sold
houses or furniture, of which one man NAV
buy almost any amount, the allegation of
our contemporary would still be a posi-
bility; but the farmers sell food, of which
one man consumes as much as another.
The allegation that the prosperity of farm
ers ID ''all due to mining is simply an i'm
possibility. 1t is pity, too, that the follow
ing childish fancy is so indefinite:
The life of the whole business rests in min
ing-that is the life of the merchants who sell
the goods that they buyin the east, which en-
ables them TO hire clerks and paw rents. and
which makes city of $4,000 people, when ex-
cept for mining there would be no business for
more than three or four merchants in town.
That is the reason, we suppose, that Chi
cago, st. Louis, New York and other cities
have no business--because they have no
bullion to export. Utah, on the other hand.
exports bullion and San Francisco gets the
pay for it; therefore, says our elese-reason-
ing contemporary, the prosperity of Utah
all ''rests in mining"
Mining would be great thing for this
territory if its profits were only invested
here. But 1t can never be shown that the
wages paid to the miners cause this terri
tory to boom. That the portion of the
wages of per cent. of the population that
is spent for home produce, is the sole sup.
port of the other 81 per cent is Just little
"too thin.n
One point deserves notice: the Tribune
dares not let its readers see the facts we