Utah After Statehood

UTAH AFTER STATEHOOD

BY GEORGE D. CLYDE

Sixty-eight years ago today, the first elected officials of the brand new State of Utah took the oath of office in historic ceremonies in Salt Lake City. Very shortly our distinguished historian and speaker of the day, Professor Richard D. Poll, will tell us something about the Utah of 1896 and the early days of statehood. For a very few moments, let us take a close look at the Utah of 1964, as a sort of reverse stage-setting for our journey into the past.

At the very beginning let me make it clear that in reviewing the present and comparing it with the past, I am inviting you to consider the giant strides of progress that have come with time and human effort. Utah has had 10 governors, some of them of one political party, some of the other. Each administration has had its own particular aims and policies. We are looking today at the sum total of what has occurred over these years and in the course of these many administrations, without any thought of trying to tie the record of progress to a consideration of political philosophy — which, of course, is a separate and fascinating study in itself but has no place in this observance.

On today's map Utah appears to occupy precisely the same place it did 68 years ago when we first achieved statehood. But the map is deceiving. In the purely academic sense of measurement in statute miles, we do occupy the same place which was ours at the close of the nineteenth century. But in the very real sense of daily living, it is something else entirely. Measured by the time of travel, or the time it takes to ship the world's goods from place to place, Utah's geographical position is nothing like what it was 68 years ago.

With modern jet air travel one can leave Salt Lake City and in less than 12 hours be in London. Such a trip would have required at least as many days in 1896, but I believe a more striking comparison may be found in the distance which could have been covered in 12 hours when Utah was a new state. Twelve hours fast travel by rail would have taken the traveler, roughly, to the Utah-Nevada border on the way to Los Angeles. But if our traveler were setting out for Vernal or for Moab, for instance, points not on the railroad, 12 hours travel by horse-drawn vehicle would take him something like 50 or 60 miles depending on the condition of the roads. So, stated in other but very real terms, the Salt Lake City of 1896 was as far from Heber City as we are today from London. Vernal was much farther off than Tokyo today, and in the time it would have taken one to go to Kanab, today's traveler could circumnavigate the globe, with stops in various world capitals.

At the turn of the century, Utah was already widely known as a mining state. In fact, we ranked among the first five states of the nation in the production of silver, of gold, of lead and zinc — our emergence as a major copper producer did not come until a few years after statehood. A few people realized that beneath the soils of our state lay a vast array of other minerals, but no one would have ventured to predict that in a little more than half a century the value of "other minerals" — others, that is, than the gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc that formed the basis of our early mining output — would be almost 10 times that of the total mineral output of any one of those "boom" years of Utah mining.

We knew in those days of the existence of uranium — at least a few of our geologists knew and marked its presence on maps — but we did not know what to do with it. The most wild-eyed dreamer would never have suggested what uranium was going to mean to Utah's economy just 50 years later, and especially what it was going to mean to the course of world history.

We had high hopes of petroleum development in those days, but these hopes were to rise and fall into virtually complete abandonment before they would be revived and brought to spectacular reality in another age of scientific progress.

Utah had pioneered the modern development of irrigation on this continent and had almost 50 years of proud and productive experience to look back on in 1896. But the great program of water development that we know today was still around the corner. The Reclamation Act of 1902 set in motion the program that today is providing the complex engineering wonders of Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon dams and the still-to-come fabulous development of central Utah and the rest of the Upper Colorado River development that will change the face of our land for generations to come.

Infant Utah was proud of its skilled craftsmen and of its home industries, but our role as a manufacturing state appeared severely limited by our remoteness — the difficulties of travel again — from major markets. Today, we rejoice in the soundly based and steadily growing prosperity of a manufacturing complex that extends from basic heavy industry such as steel production to any number of small specialty items, and covers most of the range in between. Furthermore, the developments in travel and the westward shift of population and market centers have brought us to the threshold of tremendously exciting prospects as a major distribution center for manufactured goods for the entire western half of the nation. A far cry indeed from the days when the development of our abundant natural resources was effectively stifled by our unfavorable position in the transportation network!

Utah has grown in numbers over the years and particularly in recent years when so many new favorable factors have come into play. Today we are crowding the one million mark, considerably more than triple our population at statehood. This in itself is a sign of prosperity and progress, but more important than mere numbers is the quality of our people today. Have we upheld the high traditions and preserved the heritage which came to us from those great heroes and heroines who conquered the desert to provide the beautiful homesites which we enjoy today and who established the state whose name we so proudly carry? I think we have. I am proud, as I am sure you are, that Utahns today are known far and wide for some of the rugged pioneer virtues that appear to be becoming obsolete in many places in the world. Utahns generally still believe in giving an honest day's work for a day's pay, and this trait is one of the most powerful attractions we can offer to new industry looking for a place in which to locate.

We have preserved the deep interest in education which was a hallmark of our pioneer ancestors, and today Utah leads the entire nation in the percentage of population who graduate from high school, in the percentage of population enrolled in post-high school institutions, and in the mean number of school years completed by all of our adult population. We also lead the nation in the percentage of our total income devoted to education, and we are even now engaged in a special study to determine just how far we may safely go in educational support in relation to our over-all economy.

In a world where spiritual values are tending to become more and more neglected, a world in which our cherished concepts of freedom and the dignity of man are daily threatened by the adherents of godless ideologies in sharp conflict with our own, Utahns of all faiths stand out as people proud of their spiritual heritage. We revere the founders of our nation and the founders of our state for their high moral standards and for their religious devotion as well as for their rugged determination and unflagging industry.

We look about us today at a world which is pleasantly inviting, but at the same time frightening in its complexity and in its implications. Travel has been made incredibly fast and comfortable by comparison with any previous standards, but scarcely a day passes that we do not read of some appalling accident that snuffs out human life, sometimes scores or even hundreds at a time. We have unlocked the secret of the atom and released forces almost beyond comprehension; forces that may soon, if wisely used, provide the energy needed to eliminate poverty and want and take men to the moon and to other planets. But these same forces have been put into weapons which, if unwisely used, could literally destroy life on this earth. We enjoy the highest standard of living which man has ever known, but we face the deadly threat of over-emphasized materialism which could destroy us as surely as could the most violent forces of nature or of man's scientific devising.

It is most fitting that we should, as we are doing today, look back in our history and pay homage to those who went before us and to whom we owe so much. It is most necessary that we look about us at reality and look ahead to what uncharted paths we soon must travel.

Let us now re-dedicate ourselves to the simple virtues, to the abiding faith, and to the unflagging determination and unceasing industry of our state's founders and carry these principles forward in today's complex world with the determination that we, with the help of Almighty God, may preserve and enhance the priceless heritage we have received. Let us devoutly hope that those who may look back on us at some future date, as we are looking back today on the founders of our state, may have no cause to be other than proud of our generation and the contribution we have made to the ever growing heritage of this state and this nation.

THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY - Received at Salt Lake, Utah 11:55 a.m. Jan 6-96Dated Jefferson Iowa 6thTo Heber M. Wells, Governor of Utah.

As we have been liberated so may we help to liberate the world.

Frank J. Cannon

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