The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-05-04
Facts for immigrants.
From the Enporia Register.
IT. ~ .H.a ~

From the Enpcria Register.
| The Land Grant Railroad Com
Ipanies, which have lands to sell
only in the western part of the
state, are making super-hunan ex.
ertions to induce immigrants to
settle upon their lands.
So Ear as this can be done in a
legitimate and honorable manner,
it is all right, but the course pur-
sued by some of them is all wrong.
1t is a. wrong to the state, and a
grievous wrong to the immigrant.
These companies employ agents
upon commission in each Of the
principal counties in the eastern
and middle states, most of whom
have never seen Kansas, know
nothing about 1t, and care nothing
about it, so that they can effect
sales and get their commissions.
These agents will tell any kind
of story about Kansas which
they think will "catch a gudgeon, !"
and enable them to sell land.
The falsehood which is most
common with these gentry is, that
that unimproved land in the older
counties, that is ia counties in
which they have no land to sell, is
SO high priced that it is not worth
while to stop to look at it. With
in few days past, not less than
twenty gentlemen from different
states have told US that they had
been Informed by these irrespon-
sible agents that no good land in
the eastern part of the state could
be had for less than ten to twenty
dollars per acre.
Another dodge is to exhi bit in
these eastern offices fine specimens
of Kansas products, "grewn along
the line OF our road"
These products have been col
lected along the line of their roads,
but in the eastern counties, from
one hundred to three hundred
miles from the land they are said
to represent.
Many unsuspectlng persons are
attracted to the remote frontier by
''cheap ticket" the price Of
which is to be deducted from the
firsr payment on their land, if they
buy, little thinking that it will
prove the most expensive ride they
eyer took.
Another falsehood often told, is
that property in the older COM
ties is more heavily taxed than in
the new.
Common sense, as well as the
last report of the State Auditor,
proves the exact reverse of this.
The older counties have many of
their local improvements made
and paid for, while they have a
much greater amount of property
to tax to raise about the same
revenue.
In many of the new counties
the railroad land must bear the
whole burden of taxation, because
the homesteader may avoid it for
seven years if he chooses.
The state of Kansas is four
hundred miles long from east to
west.
OF course no arbitrary line can
be drawn separating the good
land from the poor, but speaking
generally, u line drawn from north
to south along the ninety eighth
meridian, say one hundred and
eighty miles west of the Missouri
line, will leave nearly all the good
agricultural lands east of it, am
nearly all the poor west of it. This
general statement does not apply
to the northern part of the state
so fully as to the central and
southern. In other words, the
good country extends further
west up the Solomon river and it's
tributaries than it does up the
Smoky Hill and the Arkansas.
If we take forty of the eastern
counties, we shall find that they
contain large majority of the
population and wealth of the
state, yet the western limit of
these counties is not one hundred
miles from the eastern border,
that is, they would comprise the
eastern fourth of the state.
Yet there is not one of these
counties, with all their advantages
of nearness to market, schools,
churches, mills, timber, water
power, building stone. &C., in
which first rate farming land can
not be bought of private parties
on easy terms, for from four to
ten dollars per acre.
We make no war upon the rail-
road companies for trying to sell
their lands, but in the cause of
truth, and for what we conceive to
be the best interests of the whole
state, we do most earnestly pro-
test against the Wholesale lying of
many of their eastern agents.
The Kansas press, we mean that
portion OF it not owned by these
corporations, owe it to itself
and to its state to correct the
false impressions which so gener-
ally prevail all over the eastern
states.
The eastern press, so many of
whose readers are looking to Kan
sas for future home, could do
them no better service than to
publish such general facts in re-
lation to this country as may be
relied on.
Thousands Of persons have left
Kansas, abusing the whole state,
because they have been taken, yes.
almost forced to go where they
were not suited.
The fact is, Kansas has been
praised higher and cursed lower
than it deserves, principally on
account of the circumscribed view
and limited knowledge OF the OBJ
server.
No man can obtain accurate
knowledge Of this or any other
country from 8 car window.