The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-05-24
Business Conditions.

1 u USINESS conditions in Salt Lake
| ID City are better today than at any
time in its history. There are
more people, more money in circula-
ton, and more solid business being
| done than ever before. The merchants
report trade as fair. with collections
good, Notwithstanding the fact that
the weather has been unpropitious.
| Prices of all kinds are high, and wages
have kept pace with the increasee.
Bricklayers are in demand at 50 per
day, as compared with SO formerly, and
wages of carpenters have increased
from 80 to 45 cents per hour
Mining is carried on more extensively
than ever before, and legitimate work
in this direction has yielded hand
| somely within the past few years. The
wildcat stock schemes have fallen into
| disfavor, and rightly so. Foolish peo-
pie who rushed into the purchase of
mining stocks have learned a bitter
lesson. They have seen their money
transferred to the pockets of the stock
jobbers, and while the gambling in
stinct will always induce some to con-
tinue at it, yet the victims are now
few and far between. The recent ex-
posures of the scandalous methods en-
ployed to boom stocks on the stock ex-
change, have opened the eyes of many
to the dangers of this sort of gamb-
ling.
The real estate market is quiet, but
healthy. There is not so much real
estate changing hands, nor at such
fancy prices, as during the boom of
1SS9-90, and it is better so. Real es-
tate nowadays is purchased for actual
use,-for the erection of business blocks
or houses, to be occupied by the own
ers or rented. The prices are based
upon the amount of income produced,
and the purchaser must be convinced
that it will yield a fair return on the
investment, before he can be induced
to buy This keeps prices steady, and
there is no danger of a slump when
prices are governed by such rules
There is a fair demand for money at
reasonable rates on mortgages. for the
erection of buildings and houses. Most
is always a good indication of the solid !
growth of a city. 1t is much better |
than speculative buying, where the
Spectator buys a piece of ground and |
lets it lie unimproved, merely waiting
for a rise in price. The home builder
goes ahead with the building of a
house, and if it is necessary to borrow
the money, he can easily pay it back
by setting aside what would otherwise
go for rent. Moneyed people are glad
to get such securities, as they have
always proved to be safe, and are easily
looked after.
The bank clearances keep we'll up.
and this fact, taken in connection with
the falling off in fictitious stock deals,
indicates a large increase in legitimate
business. Conservative estimates place
the actual growth in the population of
Salt Lake City at fully 20 per cent
within the last two years. This has
been going on quietly and steadily and
the new arrivals have come to stay.
The immense smelters lately built near
Murray, within ten miles of Salt Lake
City, will give employment to an army
If men, which means many thousands
If dollars annually to the merchants.
rhe payroll is always regarded as the
pest factor in the upbuilding of city.
Taken all in all, Salt Lake City has
rs bright a future as any city in the
country today.