The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-24
TRIES TO RAKE HIMSELF TOGETHER.

Our defeated morning contemporary is
trying rake.together its argument that the
prosperity Of this territory sis all due to
mining"
Our readers have the case fresh in mind
how we kicked the life out of that argu-
ment, dissected and then buried it, to the
infinite agony of its promulgators, to say
nothing Of the feelings of well-meaning
but youthful paper in Park city that char
itably lent its aid to the sorely pressed
champion that had at first so boldly entered
the lists.
Nor is it necessary here to prolong the
agony of the suffering vanquished; but an
observation on the last struggle the poor
thing makes need not be considered unnec-
essary cruelty to it.
The defeated paper toys anew with some
figures, to the end of showing that the
wages of miners in the greatest mine in the
| territory must be of considerable benefit to
the people of the territory of Utah, since a
portion of said wages are spent for home
raised products. No one disputes this; a
portion Of the miners wages are spent for
home products, and portion of the mine
| oNPRA1So dAS pIOuuSIS i AO %
given by our contemporary, in somewhat
careless manner, show that this greatest
mine probably eXpends $500, 600 annually in
this way. If a like proportion holds for the
other mines, something like two million
dollars worth of home products will be con-
sumed annually by the mines and miners of
Utah. Now the argument of our defeated
neighbor is that this circulation as it
terms it, of $1,000 900 is the sole cause of
Utah's prosperity.
But the point lies in this: DO the mines
and miners, by consuming $2,OO0,000 worth
of home products annually, thereby enable
the payment of wages aggregating at least
twenty times this amount! In other words,
does that portion of the wages af one six
teenth of the population which is spent for
home products support the other fifteen
slxteenths! Does one-fourth or even one
half Of the wages of six per cent of our
population constitute the wages of the other
ninety four per cent?
The fact that the miners buy and eat IS
much home produce as any other 6 per cent
OF the workingmen in this territory, does
not prove that the miners are supporting
the other "a per cent. If it did, similar
proof could be made for any other per
cent of the wage earning population.
We may add that PERSONS final earn
ings are the test of how much he is aiding
the general prosperity. The property in.
terests of each class show the final result
of the industry OF that class. Otherwise
the shoemakers could claim that the pros
perity of Utah depended solely on them,
since all people are dependent on them
for shoes; so could the tailors and masons:
while the farmer could show that all de
pended on him for bread, without which
they could not exist at al; and
each Industry could make a similar
claim with just as good reason. The only
person, however, green enough to make
such claim is our defeated neighbor, who
makes this claim for the mining industry.
1t reasons that since money is the life of
trade and the mines produce a money metal.
therefore the mines are the life of all the
business of Utah. And to persons who
cannot reason, or to those who know moth
ing Of the real function of money, this
childish conceit has some attractions: but
after the drubbing we gave this scatter
Drained wag in our Saturdays issue, out of
sheer contempt and disgust we refrain
from again Furnishing the weak culprit now.