| Description |
THE UTAH NEWSPAPER HALL OF FAME header, "Do We Have The Courage?" it asked: "Do we have the courage or the sense to face our own shortcomings; to admit to ourselves and to all concerned our errors and mistakes? Only obstinancy refuses to confess error and only vanity declines to admit defeat. Obstinancy and vanity are drags upon the chariot of progress. Unless we cut them loose, we do not get very far. The same truth holds for the individual, the group, the community, the nation. History is replete with instances of fine heads battered against the impenetrable wall of unalterable fact. There is no shame in admitting failure or mistake, either to ourselves or to observers. We cannot long elude those who watch, and they will respect us the more highly if we frankly confess when we muff the ball that it was our fault." Both the News and Sun gave banner headlines to 1920s highway development since their communities were closely linked in efforts to make tourism an area industry. A significant act of 1923 was a Federal grant for improvement of a road leading from Nephi to Richfield, passing through both Gunni-son and Salina, and a second route from Cove Fort through Sevier County. They were viewed as "the most plausible routes for travel to the scenic wonders of southern Utah." Indeed, if that scenery, which included Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, was to be reached in those days, it was by automobile. Travel by train was not an option since the Rio Grande Railroad branch which separated from the mainline at Thistle, terminated at Marysvale, some 75 miles from the nearer of the two parks. Understandably, interest in tourism was high throughout central and southern Utah. And people with vision could readily see the potential of auto traffic with its parallel expenditures for gasoline, entertainment, food and lodging. Though the appropriately-named "Great Depression" of the 1930s made itself felt in Utah papers, news coverage and editorial opinions were undiminished in the Sun and the News. A 1932 editorial appearing in both and headlined "Taxpayers' Treason," chastized in these words organizations bent upon securing Federal funds for pet projects: "The federal 455 |
