Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], December 16, 1905, Page A, Image 50

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library

                
GOODWIN'S WBHKL.Y. A I
ply between the Golden Gate and all parts of the
world.
It is to this famous old American city that the
Western Pacific is headed, and the line will run
direct from Salt Lake. Every person knows by
this time that the Rio Grande Western and Den
ver & Rio Grande have been merged into the big
family of railroads known as the Gould system.
Up to the present, Mr. Gould has lacked a Pacific
coast line, and the Western Pacific supplies that
f deficiency. The Gould lines now extend over the
greater portion of the southwest, with direct lines
from the great lakes to the gulf of Mexico, and
from Atlantic tidewater to the heart of Utah. With
his Western Pacific he will operate from ocean to
ocean, to say nothing of the thousands of miles
of feeders.
i The new railroad will be about 840 miles from
Salt Lake to San Francisco, but its engineers claim
that in no case will the maximum grade exceed 1
per cent, which means everything to the future
Si economical operation of trains. It will cross the
' Sierra Nevada range at an elevation but a little
ft ' over 5,000 feet, and its line in that district will be
f most picturesque, with innumerable tunnels, but
no snow sheds.
The line skirts the south end of Great Salt
Lake, crosses the range between the Stansbury
I and Lakeside mountains and traverses the Great
American deaert. It crosses the Southern Pacific
I , at Wells, and runs near that line to Winnemucca,
thence takes to the northwest to Deep Hole and
southwest to the Beckwith pass, via Quincy, Oro
ville, Sacramento and Stockton to Oakland.
With the army of Gould agents and employes
working for this new line to the Pacific, another
great tide of travel and of freight will be diverted
through the Salt Lake gateway, and in connection
with the short line to Los Angeles, will make of
this city a second Denver; in fact, the Colorado
capital will find in Utah's metropolis a strong
competitor.
In passing, it should be remembered that no
state is so wonderfully endowed with resources
and attractions as Utah. It will be a great draw
ing card. Here we have the lake and the city,
both features which prove irresistible to the aver
age tourist. Nearby are canyons and mountain
retreats, the finest examples of mining and smelt
ing plants which are unknown to the average east
erner. Medicinal springs abound, and in time
modern hotels and sanitariums are sure to be built
to meet the demand. In fact, Utah has everything
that goes to the making of a tourist center, and
this will prove one of the greatest factors in its
upbuilding as a great railroad center.
f David H. Moffat, the well known Denver cap
italist, seems to fully realize the coming impor-
tance of this state as a future railroad hub, for he
was the first man to project an independent and
j k direct line from Denver to Salt Lake. He has 100
Ij ' miles in operation, and all last summer his trains
were packed each day foi xhe popular "July snow
ball trip." He is over the continental divide, and
thus has concluded the first and hardest step in
the construction of his 500 mile railroad. It is a
magnificently built road and a whole chapter could
be written of its glorious scenery and engineering
' feats. We have Mr. Moffat's word that the line
will be built on to this city just as fast as money
and men can perform the work. Thus Salt Lake
will be placed on still another through line, and
the time to Denver will be reduced many hours.
Coincident with the resumption of mining in
Nevada and the fabulous strikes in the new dis
tricts came a revival in railroad building. The
Salt Lake Route added several hundred miles to
the total track in the state and has rehabilitated
Lincoln county. The Tonopah road almost paid
for itself the first year, and now it has e.-uided
to Goldfield. The Las Vegas & Tonopai as al
I ready been referred to. The Southern Pacific is
building from Toano to Ely and Cherry Creek,
and it is said will tap Deep Creek, the Mecca for
I
every railroad builder in the last thirty years. The
greater part of the Western Pacific's mileage will
be in Nevada also, and so the picture is presented
of a state going for twenty years with little or no
railroad building, and then in two years more than
doubling its mileage. Nevada is going to derive
untold advantages from its railroad extensions.
What of Idaho? This is the Oregon Short
Line's field, and the Oregon Short Line is busy.
To see the engineers plodding through the snow
toward Yellowstone National Park must be a
pleasing landscape to Mr. Hill, back in New York,
that railroader having had an exclusive rail line to
the park up to the present. But the wonderful
showing on Yellowstone travel via Monida made
by the Short Line during the past summer decided
the owners to push on to the park, and next sum
mer the festive tourist can take in the sights of
Utah and Salt Lake and then move northward by
Pullman train direct to the edge of the great
reservation.
Idaho's greatest extension, however, was the
Minidoka & Southwestern, which traverses the
Twin Falls tract of thousands of acres of land
now under water. It will in time be the garden
spot of the Gem state, and the Short Line will
find it one of its busiest branches. The same com
pany has built the Malad Valley line, and this, too,
will open a fine country and provide a rail route
to the Garland sugar factory, which has lately
been built.
In addition to the lines in Utah already men
tioned, the Rio Grande Western has completed a
branch to Garfield for the purpose of easily han
dling the copper ores of Bingham; the San Pete
Valley is building a spur to the Moroni sugar fac
tory, and the Lagoon road is being extended to
Ogden, with the promise that it will be electrified
next summer.
Collectively speaking, the Gould, Harriman and
Clark roads spent a busy year in rectifying lines,
ballasting, establishing new grades and improving
shop and terminal facilities. Among the big works
of the coming year are terminal stations in this
city for the Salt Lake Route and Oregon Short
Line jointly and the Rio Grande and Western Pa
cific, which will go in together, presumably on the
Fourth West street site. Many other plans are
being made for still further improving Salt Lake,
Ogden and Provo terminals, so the coming year
will be a busy one.
The Burlington states that it will build into
Salt Lake, and many other projects are talked of
from day to day, but until work commences, no
official data is obtainable. Let us hope that a good
story on the coming of the Burlington may be
written before another year rolls 'round.
Tottticctt ReJfebv.
Now that vespers are being chanted over the
closing days of 1905, no achievement of the year
will be more memorable or will be looked back
upon with more general gratification than the po
litical transformation that has taken place in
Utah, and particularly in the chief citadel of the
state.
A year ago, it may be fairly stated, there was
no such thing here as politics on the plan which
prevails in other American states. Senator Smoot
of Provo, selected for and elected to his office by
his high ecclesiastical associates, was the czar of
Utah politics. Not the most intrepid citizen had
the temerity to run for office without having first
been assured that the gentleman from Provo
favored his candidacy. His hand could be seen
in every primary; he and his agents were om
nipotent in every convention. The holding of
primaries and the casting of ballots had become
a mere matter of formality; the seal of apostolic
appjoval on the brow of any candidate meant his
assured election, and all the independent influ
ences in the state combined were poweiless to
stay this insidious power.
The most lamentable and bitterly resented
evidence of this occurred in last year's state Re-
publican convention, when Apostle Reed Smoot M
lifted a practically unknown merchant from his jH
bargain counter and made of him, against the HH
united protest of everyone not belonging to his M
merciless machine, the nominee for governor of M
the state. M
That act was the culminating one which m
brought Gentiles and independent voters gener- :H
ally into open revolt against Smoot and his ma- 'H
chine. An independent party was formed as a ifl
protest against such iniquitous political usurpa- H
tion, but as Mr. Roosevelt's election was involved H
in the campaign of that year, many Gentiles, IH
though themselves indignant at Smoot, refrained 'H
from allying themselves with the new party. So jH
the unhealthy Smoot political vegetation grew iH
untrammeled, and his product and protege, the H
present governor, was elected chief executive of H
the state. H
Meanwhile the opposition to the machine had H
become cemented. The nomination and election H
of the obscure Cutler was too heroic a dose for H
even those who were disposed to placate and H
make excuses for the boss political ecclesiastic H
of the Mormon church. It was seen more and H
more as the months rolled away that unless dras- H
tic measures were resorted to, Mr. Smoot, H
through his unscrupulous use of eclesiastical pow- H
er, through his efforts to politicalize every public H
institution in the state, would fasten upon the M
commonwealth a political mechanism which H
would keep citizens of all classes in political H
slavery for years and years to come. H
With this menace assuming more and more H
the aspect of reality, the Gentiles and independent D
voters of Salt Lake decided to make a bold and H
unequivocal fight against Smoot and his civic H
depredations. To shatter his power, they stood H
almost as a unit this year in opposition to the
regular organizations, which indeed had already H
lost whatever political entity they may have for- JM
merly possessed. M
The result is well known. Mr. Smoot, by the H
same old insidious methods with which he had M
carried through successfully all his former po- M
litical ventures, named a candidate for the mayor- M
alty and attempted to buckle him upon the mu- M
nicipality. In this undertaking, through the ocn- M
certed opposition of the Gentiles, aided by a few M
independent young Mormons, he met with over- M
whelming and humiliating defeat. In fact, the H
vote of this year delivered a blow to the Smoot fl
machine which so completely annihilated it, that H
it signalized the everlasting though involuntary M
retirement of Mr. Smoot as a political boss. M
In reviewing the achievements of the year in M
a political way, the breaking up of the Smoot ma- M
chine must be accorded first place. M
But there were other phases of the contest M
this year which afforded a most hopeful and salu- H
tary lesson. In that campaign the president of HI
the Mormon church refrained from active par- M
ticipation, and even went so far as to reprimand M
Smoot and some of his agents for having, with- H
out authority, stated that he desired the election H
of any particular candidate. H
This naturally left the battle between the H
apostles and the lesser members of the priest- B
hood, and in the fight of this year the struggle H
was so bitter that it seems doubtful if the church H
members will ever be able to form one of the old H
time solid formations when all Mormons voted H
as a unit. This is another political achievement H
of the year which is a source of gratification 9
among the independent citizens of the city and H
the state. S
All of the above is now history, but reference '
to it seems necessary in a recapitulation of the I
political progress in this state during the past S
year.
The beneficial effects of the Gentile victory
(Continued on page 36.) H
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