UTAH. 



773 



Financial. Utah has no Territorial debt. The 

 followiug table gives figures for two years : 



The rate of taxation is six mills on the dol- 

 lar, half for common schools and half lor gen- 

 eral purposes. 



Mining. The following is a recapitulation of 

 the mineral product for 1884 : 



4,840,987 Ibs. refined lead, at 3} cents per Ib $169,434 54 



56,028,898 Ibs. unrefined lead, at $35 per ton. . . . 980,418 12 



5,669,488 ozs. fine silver, at $1.08 per oz 6,123,047 04 



5,5^0 ozs. fine gold, at $20 per oz . . . . 110,600 00 



63,372 Ibs. copper, at 10 cents per Ib 6,337 20 



Total export value $7,389,836 90 



Computing the gold and silver at its mint 

 valuation and other ruetals at their value at 

 the seaboard, it would increase the value of 

 the product to $9,801,508. The estimated 

 product for 1885 is about the same as that 

 of 1884. 



Salt. In 1884 there was manufactured from 

 the waters of Great Salt Lake 17,000 tons of 

 salt, which was shipped to the different min- 

 ing districts for milling purposes in the reduc- 

 tion of ore. In addition to this, a considerable 

 amount is manufactured for domestic use. 



Education. The public-school system is very 

 generally established over the Territory, but is 

 a source of great complaint by a large number 

 of the people who are taxed for the support of 

 schools into which their children never enter. 

 This has stimulated effort to supply schools in- 

 dependent of Mormon control, and has resulted 

 in the different religious denominations of the 

 country establishing schools throughout the 

 Territory. The public schools receive as a 

 body the Mormon children, and the schools 

 established by the different religious denomina- 

 tions receive the children of the non- Mormons. 

 Many children of Mormon parentage are taught 

 in the latter-named schools, they being pre- 

 ferred because the teachers are better qualified 

 and the schools better. The Methodists have 

 13 schools, with 869 pupils; the Roman Cath- 

 olics 4, with 610 pupils; the Baptists 2, with 

 205 pupils; the Episcopalians 5, with 795 pu- 

 pils. The New West Education Commission 

 is virtually the work of the Congregational 

 Church. It had during the last school year 

 enrolled in Utah and in one school just across 

 the Idaho line, 1,915 pupils, with an average 

 attendance of 1,113 in 28 schools; of these 

 1,915, 1,250 were of Mormon families. On 

 Oct. 8, 1885, there were 39 teachers at work 

 in Utah. The Presbyterians are carrying on 

 31 day schools in Utah, in which about 900 

 children and youth are being educated, 75 

 per cent, of them being children of Mormon 

 parentage. 



Insane Asylum and Penitentiary. During the 



year an insane asylum was completed and 

 opened. It has fine surroundings, overlook- 

 ing the city of Provo and Utah Lake. The 

 Penitentiary is inadequate to the needs of the 

 Territory. 



Polygamy and the Edmunds Law. The report 

 of the Utah Commission, under date of Oct. 

 28, 1885, says: 



The usual annual revisions of the Utah registration 

 lists ior the present year were duly and thoroughly 

 made a^ the time and in the manner and form pre- 

 scribed in the local registration law, by officers ap- 

 pointed by this board, and the general election fol- 

 lowing such revisions was held on the 3d day of 

 August last. The principal officers chosen at that 

 election were commissioners to locate university 

 lands, members of the Council and House of Repre- 

 sentatives of the Legislative Assembly, also county 

 and precinct officers "throughout the Territory. No 

 person living in the practice of polygamy was allowed 

 to register or vote, nor was any such person elected 

 or commissioned to any office at this or any previous 

 election held under the supervision of the commis- 

 sion. Nevertheless, nearly all the officers chosen at 

 the last election, as in the others, are Mormons, who, 

 while they do not actually live in polygamy, sub- 

 scribe to the doctrine of polygamous marriages as a 

 divine revelation, higher and more binding upon the 

 conscience than any human law, local or national. 

 One very notable exception, however, to this general 

 rule was furnished in the last election in the county 

 of Summit. In this county the entire non-Mormon 

 ticket was elected, and among the officers thus chosen 

 was a member of the House of Eepresentatives of the 

 Legislative Assembly. He is the first person not a 

 member of the Mormon Church and opposed to their 

 system who has been elected in many years. 



In a former report we called attention to the fact 

 that a number of suits for damages were instituted in 

 1882 against the commission by certain Mormon citi- 

 zens whose names had been excluded from registra- 

 tion, and who were not permitted to vote. The dis- 

 trict court decided these cases against the plaintiffs, 

 and on appeal to the Supreme Court of the Territory 

 these decisions were affirmed. An appeal having been 

 taken by the plaintiffs to the Supreme Court of the 

 United States, the decisions of the court below were 

 sustained as to the members of the commission. 

 According to the best information we have been able 

 to obtain, there have been very few polygamous 

 marriages during the present year. It would not be 

 prudent, however, to consider this other than a sus- 

 pension of the practice resulting from the vigorous en- 

 forcement of the law in all its parts, and not an actual 

 surrender occasioned by a general and decided change 

 of sentiment regarding the doctrine itself. 



During the past two years there have been 

 83 indictments for polygamy and unlawful co- 

 habitation, and 23 convictions. At the date 

 of the report, 43 cases were awaiting trial. 



The cases of Rodger Clawson and Angus M. 

 Cannon, decided by the Supreme Court of the 

 United States, in April and December respect- 

 ively, declare the constitutionality of the Ed- 

 munds law. Toward the close of the year, there 

 were reports of an intended Mormon rising, 

 and troops were sent to Salt Lake City. In De- 

 cember the grand jury in that city reported 

 that " some time in April or May last an officer 

 of the city government, not connected with 

 the police, with others at present unknown to 

 the grand jury, entered into a conspiracy to 

 open houses of assignation and ill-fame within 

 the city limits, for the avowed purpose of en- 



