The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-01
Total $3.50, 900

Salt Lake is the trade metropolis OF
five states. Look at the map of the
United States, and note the space COW
cred by the states of New Hampshire,
Vermont, Massachusetts. Connecticut,
Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania.
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland n
Virginia. That is Just about the size
of the field that nature and h lines
of transportation ave fenced in for the
Salt lake wholesale trade. Eastern
competitors are being driven from this
field, like sheep from a pasture. by the
ShreWd, aggressive and enterDrlSlnS
Salt Lake merchants. Every train n
almost every stage coach that ira
verses the great intermOuntain reg1on
carries Salt Lakes "evansels OF trade,
prepared to meet all-comerS in the hight
for business, and last year they van
Quished the enemy to the extent or
thirteen millions.
Salt Lakes Importance and advant-
ages as a trade center are not graSoed
by her own people. Jobbers them
selves will be amazed by the grand az
gregate of last years business. 1t ex-
ceeds thai of any previous year by
fully % per cent. and shrewd students
of the situation declare there is no rea-
son why it should not reach forty mil
lions
With such important railway systems
as the Union Pacific. Southern Pacific.
Rio Grande Western and Oregon Short
Line centering in Utah. with favorable
rate conditions, as against eastern md
western points, with no competitors
nearer than Denver on the east and
San Francisco and Portland on the
west. with a well-establiShed CONNER
cial and financial prestige, Salt Lake
has before her the brilliant prospect of
a magnificent trade expansion. with
not the slightest danger h a her SUI
premacy Will ever be wrested from
her.
Every line of the wholesale trade re-
ports a most prosperous yea and large
ly increased sales over 1897. this IN
crease ranging from 10 per cent in some
lines. to IS in others. The added bust
ness represents increased consumption
in part, but a large proportion OF the
increase represents trade wreSted from
outside competitors. The more $avor-
able attitude of the railway companies
in the line of distributing rates is
largely responsible for this growth of
trade, and the magnificent record or
last year demonstrates that a liberal
policy on the part of the railways and
a proper spirit of enterprise on the part
of the merchants are the great factors
in trade expansion.
INTO NEW TERRITORY.
Salt Lake has reached u and taken
possession of much new territory our
ing the past year. Its trade now. In
the principal lines. covers all of Utah
southern and eastern Oregon and Ne
Vada. while some special branches have
extended from Denver to the Pacific
coast. Local retail merchants. at first
~prejudiced against and suspicious of
the Salt Lake jobber, are becoming
educated to the advantages of a dis
tributing point at their own doors.
enabling them to purchase in smaller
lots, and to secure a quicker delivery.
| and they are now exhibiting a decided
preference for Salt Lake houses.
With the exceptionally favorable po-
sition occupied by Salt Lake. there is
no reason why its wholesale trade
should not be trebled. There is room
and need for more business and larger
lines. Representative dealers now in
the field display a broad-minded spirit
in this respect, and would welcome new
competitors. New houses, they say,
would build uD their trade at the eX-
pense of eastern jobbers. turn lew
business to Salt Lake. and benefit the
older established firms. This condition.
however. does not exist as to h gro
Gerry and drug lines. In the former the
eastern jobbers were long e driven
entirely from the field by Salt K
energetic firms, and the entire inter
mountain trade is now handled by local
merchants. In drugs. four-fitths of the
business has been captured by Salt
Lake
Salt. Lakes jobbing houses keep
about one hundred travelling statesmen
constantly in the field. and. altogether.
give employment to perhaps one thou
sand persons. representing a 9Opula-
ticr of 1000 or 1000.
CONDITION OF TRADE.
The conditions of some of the more