UTAH 



6014 



UTAH 



the quantity treated. The milling of flour, the 

 manufacture of beet sugar, in which Utah ranks 

 fourth among the states, and railroad repairing, 

 founding, dairying and canning are also large 

 industries. The woolen mills established in 

 1872 at Provo by Brigham Young are the old- 

 est and among the largest west of the Missis- 

 sippi River. Utah is fortieth among the states 

 in value of manufactures. 



Transportation. The state has over 2,350 

 miles of railroad, the chief lines being the 

 Denver & Rio Grande, the San Pedro, Los 

 Angeles & Salt Lake, the Central Pacific, the 

 Oregon Short Line, the Western Pacific and the 

 Union Pacific. There are no navigable rivers, 

 but the proportion of improved public roads is 

 greater than in any other state west of the 

 Mississippi. 



Government and History 



Government. The present state constitution 

 adopted in 1895. By an amendment 

 adopted in 1896 women have equal rights with 

 men to vote and to hold office. 



The executive department consists of the 

 governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, 

 attorney-general and superintendent of public 

 instruction, all of whom are elected for four 

 years. The pardoning power does not rest with 

 the governor, but with a board consisting of the 

 governor, a justice of the supreme court and 

 the attorney-general. 



The legislative body is the senate and house 

 of representatives. Senators are elected for 

 four years, and are not to exceed thirty in num- 

 ber. Representatives are elected for two years, 

 and their number must be at least twice and 

 not more than three times the number of sena- 

 tors. 



The judiciary consists of the supreme court 

 and such inferior courts as are established by 

 law. The supreme court judges are elected for 

 terms of six years and may be from three to 

 five in number. 



There is a uniform system of county gov- 

 ernment, and the organization of cities, pre- 

 cincts and towns is established by general laws. 

 Initiative and referendum laws are in force, 

 but they do not apply to constitutional amend- 

 ments. 



History. Under the Spanish explorer Car- 

 denas, an expedition sent by Coronado in 1540 

 penetrated the region which is now Utah, as 

 far as the Colorado River. More than two 

 centuries later two Franciscan friars reached 

 Utah Lake, in an effort to find a direct route 

 to the Pacific. Trappers and immigrants 

 crossed the region in the early part of the 

 nineteenth century, but the Indians were practi- 

 cally the only inhabitants until 1847, when the 

 Mormons made it their refuge. 



In the following year the territory including 

 the present state, which had belonged to 

 Mexico, was ceded to the United States by the . 



treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (see illustration, 

 page 3764). The Mormons organized a govern- 

 ment and asked admission to the Union as the 

 state of Deseret. Congress refused to recognize 

 the state, and in 1850 organized it as the terri- 

 tory of Utah, including an area much greater 

 than the state now has. Brigham Young was 

 made its first governor. An attempt of the 

 Mormons to exclude Gentile settlers resulted in 

 the sending of United States troops to the 

 territory in 1858. The extension of the Union 

 Pacific Railroad across the southern part of the 

 territory in 1869 gave Utah access to the mar- 

 kets of the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific 

 coast, and since that date its industrial growth 

 has been steady and rapid. 



A law was passed by Congress in 1862 pro- 

 hibiting polygamy, which was practiced by the 

 Mormons, but the custom continued until 1887, 

 when a stringent law was passed disfranchising 

 polygamists and confiscating the property of 

 the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. In 1890, 

 the Mormon president issued a manifesto abol- 

 ishing the practice. Four years later the terri- 

 tory drew up a constitution, and in 1896 it was 

 admitted as a state. 



Important industrial and labor laws have 

 been passed. Serious strikes occurred in 1914 at 

 the Bingham copper mines, and the following 

 year an uprising of the Indians on the Piute 

 Reservation was averted only through the serv- 

 ices of General Hugh Scott, whom the govern- 

 ment had sent to adjust matters. In 1917, a 

 bill establishing statewide prohibition, became 

 effective. 



Other Items of Interest. Great Salt Lake is 

 the largest body of salt water in the United 

 States. 



Four barrels of the water of this lake will 

 yield, after evaporation, almost a barrel of 

 salt. 



In Utah, just north of the old Mormon road 

 to California, is an almost inaccessible valley 

 which is a sea of white, glaring sand. No beast 



