Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1893-06-03

ifindlilerent to the fact that ruined
hopes, vexation, worry, oct capital
aud credit, ttrew the paths OF trade
and traders everywhere around.
Some have imagined that an increase
Of stores means an increase In wealth;
but surely little reflection will show
this TO be fallscy, Tor ~ every house
were converted into a store, none
would be the richer. But many or few,
store creates nothing, improves
nothing, adds nothing 10 the value Of
anything; II ia simply a c)nvenlouce,
a necessity maybe OF modern life, one,
too, liable to be vastly ovordonu.
California and eastern papers are
agilaling this question all the time;
English papers are doing likewise,
AMI With the practical methods and
usa es Of the mother oouutry, figures
are brought into requlsition, aud ths
assertion Is made that London alone
could asve over twenty million dol.
lars by vacatlng or auppresslng the use.
lcta cost Ofunnecessary establishments.
We need not ntitef ourselves tina. this
relundance Of stores Il confined 10
itioband countries far reuOle. Utah
shares In this condition AMI ia fact Is
In no way bshind ner more expert.
encod predecessors.
by way oi illustration, suppose we
look Mt ono Of our southern towns. II
has for the convenience Of itu twenty.
one hundred inhabitants, ten stores,
bcsidcs two drug stores which supply
both medicines aud liquor. This IL a
purchaalng community, " not pay
ing one, for oue Of these stores carries
on IT, books local Indebtedness Of
twelve thousand dollars, Rni doubtless
all tie others Ia proportion u their
stock give somewhat oimilar credit.
Supposo II be- assumed that this IL the
case, or reducing II 70 "a atty thousand
dollar total, we have a store Indebted.
uesa equal at least TO noat twenty-five
dollars per head, or estimating one
family for every i've persons, hero
Ia q mortgage on their possessions
Of Que hundred asd twenty-five
dollnm per family. Besides, the
general Indebtedness may DO much
larger, for a community Is not thus
limited M 10 purchases. Indebtedness
may exist for wagons, machinery,
stock, organs, sewing machines, etc.,
until mn aggregate eau be- reached
equivalent t. that u a northern county,
the indebtedness n which according
to one OF IL leading men Is over q
quarter million dollars.
II may be said that keepers Of stores
are none too numerous, that ~ they
were 70, mgn would seek other branches
Of business. The survival Of the hIto,t
may be urged, forgetting that every
failure 10 loss to some one, aud that
some untoward event might ptoclpl.
tate crash, seeing that many stores
run on borrowed capital at bust. SIN
iur her, the question may DO asked,
Ia regard to the fifteen or twenty
stores In town, whether there
Is nota large amount OF capital locked
up In merchandise, that could 10 Of
vastly more servics II utilized for pro.
ducti1n rather than for desullory dis.
tfibuilon2 Could not this tied.up
means exercise a greater inilucnce for
good II used "a tho Establishment OF
home manufacture about which 20
much has been said, aud comparatively
30 little done?
This is land Of liberty. Men on
gage Mt will In any vocation, and
every ono 10 supposed TO be for himself.
But does not observation tell, even at
home, that tho raulu OF professional
liio are full 10 roplotiOn, that trade
avenues arc all crowded, that labor,
non'productive LABOR, IL In excess, aud
that while few OF Utah's population
are surrounded by the CALLING poverty
known elsewhere, employment h.
yet scarce, and that the pr oblems OF
social ani political economy are not All
solged here any mlre tpau they afu