The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-01-08
KARSAS-lTS PERIOD OF DEVELOP.
MENT.
One of the most prosperotis wear,

ss.1 Tesrtfss5 MEN1s
One of the most prosperous years our
young State has ever known has just
closed. The emigration has been un-
precedehteClly large; abundant haryests
have rewarded the labors of our farfiI-
ers q great demand forail manufactured
articles has kept the wheels of our fac
tories and mills turning with incessant
industry: the Immense increase in our
population, and consequent call for sup
plies, has brought healthy and largely
augmented trade 10 our merchants !;
labor has been furnished with all the
work it asked; education and morality
have mode important advances: our
Railroad system has gone on towards
perfection without serious impeachment
or delay: and our towns and cities,
keeping pace with the country. have had
a substantial and permanent growth.
These are all encouraging results, and
furnish abundant evidence to sustain
the statement that Kansas is entering
upon the conditions that are most favor
able to rapid and healthy development.
The breath ola more energetic life than
she has ever felt before stirs the young
State with its inspiration. We have
had our period of reckless speculation
and wild serambling for speedily ac-
Quired fortunes. We have passed
through the season of revulsion and
general prostitution which inevitably
follow an era of feverish financial VEN
lures. And at last we have reached that
sober and healthy condition which looks
only for permanent methods for increas-
ing and diversifying the capacities and
the industry of the land. Capital it ac-
cumulating to an extent which demands
larger avenues of employment; we no
longer depend upon other States for the
products that are necessary to sustain
life, but have, during the past season,
for the first time in our history, shipped
to the great Eastern marts of commerce
immense supplies of wheat, corn. oats,
and other products of the soil we have
sent great herds of cattle, raised upon
our boundless prairies, to feed the mil
lions of old and more thickly settled
sections of the country, manufacturing
establishments of all kinds are springing
up in every town, city and hamlet; and
every indication points toa development
rs rapid and as great as it is healthy and
permanent.
In brief, Kansas is about to repeat the
pleasant experience of many other West
ern States. She is seriously turning her
attention to the acquisition of that solid
wealth which alone makes a people
prosperous and State truly great-the
WCdlbh w
in attractive homes, in multiplied and
diversified manufactures, in facilities
for transportation, and in well sustained
public schools and colleges. Land is no
longer held for mere purposes of spec
ulation, but eagerly sought for occupan-
cy and Improvement, and valued as a
permanent possession. City lots are
regarded as rather poor property IL they
have not houses on them which yield an
- g. =
down into legitimate channels, aud mer-
chants, alive to the importance of the
trade that is growing up around them,
are competing for it by offering goods
at prices that will compare favorably
with the great business houses of Chica-
go and ST. Louis. Ali branches of me-
chanical industry have been vitalized by
the increased demand for and Inadequate
supply of their productions.
We may confidently expect, during
the present year, development truly
wonderful. If Kansas does not, in her
rapid progress, surpass the experience of
Illinois, astonishing as was the growth
of that now great State, we have mis-
taken the indications that point to such
a result. We have all of the elements
that added to her prosperity and made
her, in few years, what she is and we
have easier access to markets. a more
equable climate, and more enteFprising
population to improve our natural adj
vantages than were the earlier settlers
in Illinois.
In 1850 that State had 1IOIS miles of
Railroad, population of S57, 40, and
the total value of all property within
her borders was SI56, $4,000. In 1850,
she NDd in operation 1857 miles of Rail-
road, which had cost SI04,000,OOo; a
population of 1,7II,95I; and property
valued in the aggregate at SS71 1850, 600.
Thus, in ten years, Illinois had increased
in population over loo per cent, and in
property values 457 per cent.
There is no reason why we may not
expect, for Kansas, a growth as rapid
and as prosperous. The elements out
of which the splendid fabric of that
grand Commonwealth was reared, exist
in Kansas as well, and will be as potent
and as quick in the development of our
State as they were In the case of Illinois.
We have only to apply ourselves dill
gently to the task, and await the result.
In this work, in new manufactures. in
the possession and cultivation of land.
in the erection of houses, in the estab-
lishment of a permanent, legitimate
business which will grow with the
growth of the State, will be made the
great fortunes of the future. Those who
are sagacious enough to engage In such
enterprises early, control them literally
yet judiciously, and hold on to them
tenaciousiy, will surely reap rich har-
vest in that great appreciation of real
values which is but just now commence
ing.-Atchsso1l Champion and Press.