744 



UTAH. 



the Port Douglas reservation as a site for build- 

 ings if occupied within five years. The commis- 

 sioners are authorized to locate university lands 

 and sell them at a minimum price of $2.50 an acre. 



The Agricultural College has a new building, 

 for which appropriation was made by the last 

 Legislature. Two new chairs have been estab- 

 lished those of Hydraulics and Lacticology. 

 In April 370 students were enrolled for the com- 

 ing year. 



It has been decided to establish at Salt Lake 

 City a university under the care of the PresGy- 

 terian Church. Ogden offered a large cash and 

 land bonus and the building partly finished as 

 a university by the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

 Salt Lake City gives land. 



The Church university was opened at Salt Lake 

 City in September. It is founded and endowed 

 by the Church of the Latter- Day Saints, but will 

 be open to students who are not members as well 

 as to members of the Church, and there will be 

 no charge for tuition except, the first year, an 

 admission fee of $5. It is the intention to have 

 full courses of study leading to the degree of 

 Bachelor of Arts. 



Homes and Farms. A census bulletin sums 

 up the showing of statistics on ownership and in- 

 debtedness of homes and farms in the lerritory : 



In regard to farms the conclusion is that 9-43 per 

 cent, of the farm families hire, and 90-57 per cent, 

 own the farms cultivated by them ; that 5-55 per cent, 

 of the farm-owning families own subject to incum- 

 brance, and 94-45 per cent, own free of incumbrance. 

 Among 100 farm families 9 hire their farms, 5 own 

 with incumbrance, and 86 without incumbrance. On 

 the owned farms there are liens amounting to $546,- 

 245, which is 24-93 per cent, of their value, and this 

 debt hears interest at the average rate of 10-13 per 

 cent., making the average annual interest charge $93 

 to each family. Each owned and incumbered farm, 

 on the average, is worth $3,670 and is subject to a 

 debt of $915. 



The corresponding facts for homes are that 39-35 

 per cent, of the home families hire and 60-65 per cent, 

 own their homes ; that.ot the home-owning families, 

 91-49 per cent. 6wn free of incumbrance, and 8-51 per 

 cent, with incumbrance. In 100 home families, on 

 the average, 39 hire their homes, 5 own with incum- 

 brance, and 56 without incumbrance. The debt on 

 owned homes aggregates $1,428,698, or 27-70 per cent, 

 of their value, and bear interest at the average rate 

 of 9-71 per cent, so that the annual amount of inter- 

 est to each home averages $100. An average debt 

 of $1,028 incumbers each home which has the aver- 

 age value of $3,711. 



Mining. The product of gold, silver, lead, 

 and copper of the Territory had in 1892 a sea- 

 board value of $16,276.818. In 1893 it fell off 

 to $12,832,074, the decrease being in silver, lead, 

 and copper, while the production of gold in- 

 creased over 40 per cent. Of the condition of 

 this industry the report of the Utah Commission, 

 made in September, to the Secretary of the Inte- 

 rior, says : 



Mining is one of the most important industries of 

 Utah nay, of the whole intermountain region. Until 

 recently it was admittedly the principal factor of 

 progress and improvement in the Territory. Certainly 

 it has been the chief incentive to non- Mormon immi- 

 gration to the Territory. It has served to stimulate 

 the building of cities, towns, railroads, factories, and 

 agricultural production. It gave remunerative em- 

 ployment to thousands of laborers. But all this is now 

 changed. The mines are closed, their output of gold 



and silver, of copper, of lead and iron, is arrested, 

 while as a consequence multitudes of laborers are left 

 stranded in idleness and desperation. The condition 

 of the mining region is indeed deplorable. The Com- 

 mission speaks of the fact, but does not undertake to 

 trace its controverted source. 



The first stage returned from the San Juan 

 gold fields (described in the " Annual Cyclo- 

 paedia" for 1892, page 772) in January to Do- 

 lores, having made the trip to Bluff City and 

 return in four days, with 1 coach, 6 horses, and 

 21 passengers. Rich strikes have been made in 

 the Henry mountains, and it is predicted that 

 this is the coming gold district of the West. A 

 new mining district was organized there on Jan. 

 27, to be known as the Gold Belt Mining Dis- 

 trict. 



The report of the United States Inspector of 

 Coal Mines says that, " with one or two excep- 

 tions, the mines have been worked in a very 

 primitive and incompetent manner. The super- 

 intendents, as a rule, generally open out rooms 

 as soon as the coal is reached (in one case the 

 map has a great resemblance to a fan), and rooms 

 are driven into one another, thereby leaving an 

 insufficiency of pillars to support the roof. Not 

 even in the opening of a coal mine has there 

 been the slightest attention paid to the most 

 elementary study of the geological structure of 

 the coal field, and the result is that the mine is 

 practically worked out when it should only have 

 reached its maximum capacity." The coal out- 

 put of 1892 is estimated at 360,508 tons. 



The Commission. The Appropriation bill 

 in Congress contained, when it came from the 

 House, in February, 1893, a provision abolishing 

 the Utah Commission, and imposing its duties 

 on the Governor, Chief Justice, and Secretary of 

 the Territory, without additional compensation. 

 The Senate Committee on Appropriations pro- 



Eosed to strike out that provision, and after de- 

 ate it was decided to retain the Commission, 

 $10,000 being appropriated for their salaries and 

 $7,000 for expenses. The House concurred in 

 these provisions. H. C. Lett, of Utah, was ap- 

 pointed a member of the Commission, in place of 

 A. G. Saunders, the law requiring that the ap- 

 pointment be made from residents of the Terri- 

 tory in future. The other members, besides the 

 chairman, Commissioner A. B. Williams, of Ar- 

 kansas, Democrat, are: Gen. John A. McClernand, 

 Democrat, of Illinois ; R. S. Robertson, Repub- 

 lican, of Indiana ; and Col. Godfrey, Republican, 

 of Iowa. 



Among the duties of the Commission was the 

 appointment of registration officers. 



The Women's Industrial Home at Salt Lake 

 City was put in charge of the Commission, as di- 

 rected by Congress. This institution was built 

 by the Government about 1886, " to be used and 

 occupied by it for the purpose of aiding in the 

 suppression of polygamy and of furnishing an 

 industrial home and providing employment and 

 means of self-support for dependent women who 

 renounce polygamy, and the children of such 

 women of tender age." The experiment has cost 

 the National Government nearly $100,000, and 

 has proved a failure, very few women caring to 

 avail themselves of its privileges. At last re- 

 ports, there were not more than twenty inmates, 

 of whom about half were children. 



