The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1870-10-13
ABOUT RAILROADS.

and other new and rapidly growing States,
are quite certain to grow poetic in their in
terpretations of their visions of the future
commercial consequence Of the business
centres where they are located. This will
hurt nothing where the places really have no
foundation kr any great expectations Of
growth, or where the papers themselves
have no weight in directing the public
mind But under circumstances such
as Kansas cities are now placed
along the lines of the great railways
that have been built and are in process Of
construction, it is not wise for newspapers to
90 into heroics over their future grandeur
and greatness, from q purely imaginative
statement of advantages to be derived from
the construction Of public works.
The people Of Kansas, and especially
tho~e dwelling in the Kansas River Valley,
and all its contiguous country, require square
talk now about our railroad building and
systems.
The geography is BY no means unfavorable
10 the realization Of the expectations in
dluIgcd in by the people Of this State a
few years ago, that through its very centre
would pass the great thoroughfare of COM
mcrcc and travel from one side to the other
of this Continent; Of that, also, that comes
across the wide seas from the rich lands Of
the Fast Indias and the Southern Ocean.
With a clearer view Of the great interests at
stake in this direction of the various rail-
way enterprises projected and pushed
westward, southwestward and south
through Kansas territory, Kansas influence
could have secured the completion of such
lines as would have made safe the result
We have intimated. 1t is now a doubtful
struggle TO reach the desired aim, that could
have been assured by clear foresight of our
true interests with a combined effort to rea-
lie them. Every man in Kansas should
have worked with all his energies for the
rapid and sure completion Of the Kansas
Pacific Railway to the Pacific ocean, on its
chosen line, the :5th parallel of latitude.
This route is much more practicable
than that Of the Union Pacific. 1t would
bring the great commercial centers of the in
terror of the country, as well as those
located ON the Atlantic, nearer those on
Pacific. The country, for large part
of the way, is susceptible. IF settlement,
and much Of it very rich in 10th agricultural
resources and minerals. The line is below
the limit of the terrific snow storms that the
upper road-the U. P.-must always encoun-
fer. and from this fact alone could be run
with much less expense. The rapid de-
velopment of the country contiguous, the
filling up of the rich and semi-tropical
valIies through which it would pass, would
secure for the road what the U. Z. can never
have to any great extent-a vast local traffic
The prompt completion Of this road would
have settled the question about where the
great artery Of trans-continental trade would
have been located. Running its broad way
through the heart of Kansas, all the impor-
tant lines built by Kansas privileges, run
ming north and south, and southwest
and northwest, would have been
lat,erals emptying their wealth Of trade into
our great thoroughfare, instead of being
competing lines, carrying their trade away
from us to other through systems, that have
been made possible Of successful consumma
ton by tn Eaaclcs encountered in the ex'
tension and rapid completion of the X. p
road, mainly through the cupidity and stu
piditv of those who made public sentiment
and whose noise and enterprise bore down'a'
rational argument. The next great route il
whichKansas has special interest is the Leav
cnworth, Lawrence & Galveston. by all odd
tina, line should be pushed through withou
delay. The great corporations in New Yor!
and Pennsylvania, some of whose scheme
Fob Stevens is carrying forward with an en-
crgy very dangerous to our railroad interests
and not at all to he praised by Kansas news
papers, have got money enough to pay tn
National debt and still keep on in their reg,'
lar business. 1t is quite likely I'd transPire
Ivy and by, that they own tn
largest and best part Of Old Mexic
We are quite well advised, too, that they Ar
absorbing the stock and bonds Of our road
with view Of controlling it, so that the.
can make a complete success Of their schem
of building through lines south, of even tn
Indian Territory, and thus placing the Who'll
Kansas system, from the Kansas Pacifi
south, in the relation Of mere tributaries I
them. So, our Junction City friends, in
stead Of being the great and masni6ceu
center of grand railway system, will fin
themselves simply at the wrong end Of
branch railway, the current of whose bushes
will run from the north to he sosthcaa..