The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-02-12
OuR RAILROADS.


perfty for all time TO come will bel
doubiy assured. After waiting patient
Iy for long time for work TO com
mence on the Neosho Valley Railroad,
we now have the assurance that work |
has actually commenced, and that the |
road viii be speedily constructed to this |
place. After securing the construction |
OF this road we should not stop our
work but labor more earnestly for the
building of other roads, SO that we may |
have the benefits arising from the CEN
tering of several roads at one point.
Every citizen, of this town desires to |
make this the metropolis of Southern
Kansas, and every land owner of the
county would be willing to give their
money and influence to make this the
richest and most populous county in the
State. To secure this end we should
act jddicionsly and unitedly.
Taking it for granted that the Neosho
Valley Railroad will be built without
any further effort on our part, the next
question is, what projected line of rail-
road from the northeast will be of the
what one is likely to be the most prac-
teal?
A road from Kansas City via Ottawa
to this place, we will admit, seems to
be the road that would be of more prac-
teal advantage to US than any other that
we could have. The branch of the
Leavenworth, Lawrence s. Galveston
road, if constructed to Emporia would
give us an outlet almost as direct as the
Kansas City road and would be of i'm
meHse advantage to US, but as yet those
roads are in their infancy and we do
/ not believe that either of them will be
built for some time to come, and if
/ built at all we as citizens of Lyon coun-
1 ty will be required to vote bonds to aid
in their construction, or otherwise af-
i ford these companies sufficient induce
ments to construct their roads into this
Valley.
! The Topeka road is now being built
in this direction and will be completed
into this Valley by the time the
/ Valley road is completed to this place.
Other counties in this Valley, seeing at
once the great advantage that the juno
ton of these two roads would give
them, are working earnestly to divert
the Topeka road from this direction.
/ We do not know what success they are
meeting with, but we believe that if
Lyon county does not offer this compa-
ny some pecuniary inducements we viii
not get the road at all.
Any one will see at glance that ii
! the Topeka road should be built into
this valley during the next year, form
ing junction with the Valley road fif-
I teen or twenty miles below here Qua
| prospects as railroad center would be
! blasted and we could not in ali future
time expect to be of any commanding
importance in the Valley.
"Well," says one, "you are always
talking about what would be of advant-
age to Emporia, and overlook the inter
ests of the county in Your great enthu-
siasm for your own town."
/ No railroad from any direction can
be constructed into this county without
benefitting every citizen in it, and to
build up Emporia enhances the value OF
every farm in the county. We cannot
live without railroads, and we are sure
that there is not surplus capital along
the line of any of these contemplated
roads 10 build them, so we have no 9th.
er alternative but to hold out suffi.
cient inducements to those that have
money to build them or go without en-.
tirely. 1t has been practically demon
strated throughout the West that coun-
ties can well afford to take stock in rail
roads and that the benefits arising from
| the construction of these roads more
than doubly repay the counties through
which they are built. We want every
man to think of the proposition to vote
bonds to the capital stock of the Tope-
ka railroad. knowing that candid
consideration of the subject will con,
vince him that it will be of practical ben.
eft to us-that our taxes will not be
any heavier-that it is just the thing
that ought to be done to quadruple oul
population and double the value of ouI
property within the next two years.