Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1918-02-22
FRIDAY, FEB. %, 1918.
HELPING OURSELVES

MONEY at this time Of the year is tight in this
~ locality, where only means of getting
back the cash that is being drained from the dis
trict continually all the year round for merchan-
disc, Liberty Loan Bonds, Red Cross Contribu-
tions, Thrift and War Savings stamps and certjf-
Gates and the various other necessities, luxuries
and patriotic activities, is from the wool and live
stock marketed, and as a result the banks are
having a hard fight to keep the legitimate and
vital business of the county moving, without do
ing serious injury to their customers. All three
banks are compelled to borrow at this season of
the year to tide business over until the sale of
wool at shearing time.
Under these conditions it is difficult, indeed, to
finance or promote any kind of a new enterprise
among us. But in the face of all this it seems to
us that our citizens owe it to themselves and the
good of section of the country to do what they
reasonably can to encourage and aid the Iron Coun-
ty Coal Company in their effort to develop an
important industry among us--one which in a
few months, if it succeeds, will change the entire
aspect and financial atmosphere. Coal is the most
important and vital commodity of the world to-
day This is a fact that is being driven home day
by day. and is beyond denial Coal is going to do
more to win the world war than any other one
thing--food not excepted. Without the vital en-
ergy stored in coal, no nation in the world could
produce munitions of war, or transport them to
where they must be used in order to be effectual.
Man power would be absolutely useless to this or
any other country removed from the battle front,
without the energy of coal to move them The
lack of coal in the Eastern State this winter has
meant loss in manufactures of many millions of
dollars. The country is crying for coal-it must
have more coal; and yet here we have billions of
tons of it lying dormant and undeveloped.
Coal is one of the chief commodities which
supply needed and important tonnage to the rail
roads, and has made many of the railroads of the
country prosperous, besides paying enormous div
idends to those engaged in its production. That
is why the Government a few years ago withdrew
coal deposits from entry.
Unless President Fred w. Weeb of the Iron
County Coal Company and all his connections are
cheats and falirs (Which hardly seems probable,
in the light of their standing and credentials) the
much talked of aerial tramway will be built during
the next ninety days, and the property opened on
a scale which will warrant the building of a rail
road to the property, and which will mean more
to this section of the country than anything ever
before attempted here. This is the program
announced by Mr.. Webb during his stay in the
city yesterday morning
During the balance of the present week only,
a limited amount of stock in the company is being
offered to local people on very advantageous con-
ditions, and arrangements have been made with
both the banks in this city to receive subscrip-
tions to the stock and for the giving of terms,
within reason, to responsible parties. 1t has al
so been arranged we are informed, to allow all
moneys paid for stock to remain in the custody of
the banks until it is needed for the payment of
development work on the property
There are great many men in Cedar City and
vicinity who we'll afford to invest money in
as promising and stable an enterprise as this par
ticularly when it will be direct benefit of such
magnitude to this particular section of country
and it looks if this were the psychological mo-
ment for them to act. People in the northern part
of the state and in fact in many parts of the
United States, subscribing generously for the
stock, as an investment, pure and simple, not
withstanding another section Of the country far
removed from them will reap the principal bene-
fit of the great industrial activity that will result
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