The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-12-17
STATEHOOD.

AS the time draws near when by
President Cleveland's proclamation
Utah will be admitted into the Union
as sovereign state, naturally enough
her people are in that condition Of
mind bordering on painful anxiety,
ever attendant upon the elimination
OF long deferred hope. That state
hood to Utah means no more to her
people than statehood has meant to
the people of other territories that
have been admitted into the Union
is conceded: but that does not detract
from the Importance of the event to
our people. Millions of men have ar
rived at their majority, left the old
homestead and started life on their
own responsibility; but neither the
frequency of such occasions nor their
great number detracts from the in
terest of each particular case nor does
frequency of occurrence rob the event
or Its Importance to the one imme-
diately concerned. So with statehood
for Utah. 1t matters not that many
states have been admitted into the
Union before. and that some few will
follow Utah. The event is all important
10 our people and is the one thing that
now most occupies the public mind.
With statehood the destiny of Utah
viii be formally placed in the hands
Of her own people. The standing that
she will have in the great sisterhood
OF states to which she is so soon to
be admitted, will depend upon the
character of her own people-their
honor. intelligence and patriot
ism. Nor will shaping her own
Destiny be all that will come
TO Utah with statehood. She
VIII Tor the first time in her history be-
gin to exercise an influence upon the
destiny of the nation of which she is
a part. In the nations councils the
voices and votes of her sons will as
slSt IN determining the national policy,
both in its domestic and foreign affairs.
That the effect of statehood on the
material interests of the people of Utah
VIII be beneficial there can be no ques-
ton. The varied and extensive re-
sources of the state are just beginning
to be known in the east. That Utah's
climate is salubrious; that there are
plenty of natural facilities for any
number of health resorts; that our
wonderful lake affords the best bathing
in the world; that our soil is phenon-
enally fertile; that our opportunities
for irrigation makes crop failure, if not
impossible, extremely improbable; that
our pasturage is only limited by the
boundary lines of the territory; that
our mountains are rich in minerals;
that our coal fields are extensive; that
IN our valleys are great reservoirs of
natural gas, and that our manufacture
ing facilities are we'll nigh limitless are
facts known comparatively to but few
With statehood they will become better
and more widely known. The fact of
statehood will serve notice upon the
nation that changed conditions indeed
exist in Utah, and men will inquire
about the state, not as a thing abnor-
mail or grotesque. but with a desire to
know of its resources. Of its desir-
ability as a place for the investment of
money or home making. 1t needs only
that our resources shall be more gen.
orally known and the character of our
people understood to start a stream Of
emigration into Utah that will mater
tally increase our population and aid
in the development of our we'll nigh
limftless resources.
Utals citizens have just cause to be
proud of Utah. She possesses all the
elements necessary to a great common
wealth, and only requires the patriotic
devotion of her own people to give to
her a high rank in the sisterhood of
states Her people, as the people in
habiting other states, are and will con-
tinue to be divided in their opinions
upon questions of government policy,
and in the main will be members of
the Democratic and Republican parties
but there is one thing up
on which they should be united-the
determination to make Utah a great
state, a thing only possible where
strong local pride ripens into q noble
patriotism for the state and her in
stitutions.