Utah in the Twentieth Century

IV. Growing Challenges: People and Resources

305 IV Growing Challenges People and Resources Over the course of the twentieth century, Utah’s population multiplied eightfold , rising from 276,749 in 1900 to 2,233,169 in 2000. The number of residents swelled every decade, due partly to high birthrates. The most dramatic gains occurred from 1900 to 1910 (31.3 percent) and during the 1940s (25.2 percent), 1950s (29.3 percent), 1970s (37.9 percent), and 1990s (29.6 percent ). People moved to the state to take advantage of expanding economic opportunities during the first decade of the century (dryland farming, irrigation , mining, and smelting) and the 1940s and 1950s (defense industries and installations associated with World War II and the cold war). During the 1970s, especially after 1975, new coal mines, oil and gas exploration, residential and commercial construction, and continued defense contracts lured job seekers to the state. Economic hard times led to out-migration in the 1980s. But that reversed in the 1990s, when Utah’s strong economy and low unemployment rates lured thousands of move-ins—71 percent from California between 1991 and 1993. The newcomers included large numbers of Latinos, primarily from the American Southwest and Mexico.1 Population growth stretched Utah’s resources and raised questions such as how can the state meet the needs of its growing population, what should the state do about the number of young people who need to be educated, and what resources are required by an aging generation—especially those who move to Utah’s Dixie to enjoy a warm retirement? Who should have the rights to limited resources such as water? Should traditional industries—especially agriculture and mining—enjoy preferential rights on public lands? Or should the aesthetic and recreational interests of rapidly expanding metropolitan populations take precedence? 306 Brian Q. Cannon and Jessie L. Embry Educating a Young Population Throughout the twentieth century, Utah had one of the youngest populations in the United States. At the beginning of the century, for instance, when slightly less than 24 percent of the nation’s population was under ten years of age, four in ten Utahns were children. Between 1976 and 1979, Utah experienced a “baby boom” with a birthrate roughly 50 percent higher than the national average. The baby boom possibly evidenced a resurgence of “family values” in Utah in reaction to abortion, family planning, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Although Utah’s birthrate fell by nearly one-third between 1979 and the mid-1990s, the proportion of children in the state’s population remained exceptionally high—35 percent in 1990. One reason for that anomaly was religion: Mormons traditionally have large families because of the centrality of family and reproduction in the church’s doctrines. The influx of Spanishspeaking Catholics, who also traditionally have large families, partly because of their religion’s stance on birth control, also helped boost the birthrate slightly at the end of the century.2 A large young population created heavy demands for education, always a highly debated issue. The nineteenth century witnessed a conflict revolving around religious education—Mormons and Catholics providing education for members of their own religion and Protestant groups creating schools like Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant to educate and convert Mormons. The primary-school landscape changed after 1890, when the territorial legislature passed the Utah Free School Act, which provided for tax-supported public schools throughout Utah.3 Most schools at the time only offered education through the eighth grade, so secondary education continued to be a hotly debated topic. Not until 1911 did voters amend the state constitution to require cities and counties to finance high schools. In that year, lawmakers also earmarked funds from the state property tax for high schools. By 1916 high schools had been established in all but four counties.4 As public education improved and the taxes to support public schools increased, religious organizations closed most of their schools. By the mid1920s , only five non-Mormon elementary and secondary schools, serving 525 students, remained, and the LDS Church had closed or turned over to the government twenty-five of its thirty-three academies. By 1934 all of the LDS high schools/academies had closed or been given to the state except for Brigham Young High School, a teaching-laboratory school for education majors associated with Brigham Young University.5 Overthecourseofthecentury,thenumberofreligiouscollegesalsodropped, while the number of public institutions grew. Early in the twentieth century, the Catholic Church sponsored the College and Academy of St. Mary’s of the...