The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-12-30
With Money Pouring in From
Mine and Farm and Factory
Salt Lake Adds to Its Archi-
tectural Completeness and
Beauty = City Is Financial,
Commercial, Railroad, Edu-
cational and Religious Cen
ter of the Intermountain
Country.
BY Nj. r. CUNNINGHAM.

+ Sixty years have slipped away since
the founders of Salt Lake City pitched
their tents on Pioneer square and laid
their first immature plans for the up
building of city. Around them on all
sides was the wilderness. Wild ami
mails and wild men fought for suprema-
cy in the outskirts. No ceremonies at
tended the laying of the cornerstone
of the municipality. There were no
dreams then of a mighty city to sweep
from the foot of the sheltering noun
tains on the east to the glittering wa
ters of the lake on the west. The high
est ambition then extant was to found
a community of small farms. farms to
be the basis of family life, titled by
their owners and their f1ocks, watered
by the streams flowing down from the
hills, governed on the plan OF the patri-
archs.
Scene Is Transformed.
Sixty years have slipped away-a
transformation has taken place. The
patch of sagebrush and sand upon
which the pioneers squatted has been
transformed by the magic touch of
twentieth century progress. The sage
brush and sand are gone. The hand
cart is gone; the OK team is gone; the
adobe is gone; the homespun clothes
are gone: the ten-acTe farms in the
heart of the city are gone; the pony
express is gone: the tallow candle is
sone-the dead past with all its priva-
tions and disconforts is buried.
These old relics of the days of want
and struggle have been relegated to the
scrap pile by that spirit that has made
these sixty years the greatest in the
History of the human race. In their
place has come the scientific water sys-
tenn for the open ditch: the modern
home with ali its comforts and conven-
fences, for the adobe shack; the modern
business block: the paved streets; the
electric light: the telephone: the electric
street cars, the railroads, the elevator,
the school, the church. the club, the
library-the hundred and one modern
comforts AMI oonvenienees-all the
fruits of modern civilization.
Why other Cities Grow Faster.
Few of the pioneers who witnessed
the birth of the city remain to wonder
at the changes that have taken place
and TO speculate on the still greater
changes destined for the future. There
have been other cities that have grown
to greater proportions in sixty years.
Established on magnificent waterways
with all the elements that make city
tickle the soil with a straw made it to
laugh with a harvest: planted where
men naturally congregate because of
&C mmon interests. they grew as did
Jonah's gourd. But Salt Lake City, far
distant from waterways; removed hun
dreds of miles from the resources that
form the bone and sinew of every city;
surrounded by forbidding deserts:
reached from the centers of civilization
Gus pilgrimages through the wilderness
Salt Lake City. in spite of all these
tremendous handicaps, has forced her
way to the front until today she is rec
organized throughout the world as the
of the important business centers on the
western half of the Am erican continent
There are reasons for this forward
march of the city against all obstacles,
and these reasons are not far to seek
The greatness of Zion has been ham,
mered out of her environments. The
wealth of the city has been wrung from
the elements about her. Forced by
their circumstances to rely on their own
resources, the residents have developed
an independence, an enterprise and
public spirit that constitute the great
est working capital that can be pos
sessed by any community.
One year ago. speaking of Salt Lake
City. The Herald said
There are more homes being built
in Salt Lake City now than ever before;
more wealth pouring into the city from
the mines. the farms and the ranches:
more families of good people coming to
make this city their permanent home:
more railroads carrying a greater mass
of commodities into Salt Lake City;
more railroads building to Salt Lake
City; more men at work and at better
wages; more children attending schools
and better schools: more churches in
course of construction. and better
churches: more Improvement going on
in the streets of Salt Lake City; more
being done to sol<e the water problem
o. the city permanently; more actual
business in every legitimate line of
trade: better fed and better clothed
men. women and children than ever
before in the history of Salt Lake City:
more music. mor1 innocent pleasure,
higher standard IF morality and intel
lectuality; more enterprise, more conf
dence, more public spirit than ever be
fore; the bow of promise never shone
half SO bright Every essential ele-
ment is present to carry the city for
ward to its ultimate destiny, the me-
tropoiis of the intermountain region
Great Flood of Wealth.