Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-09-18
II PLUMrD G
EA-SeeFetary Blaine Talking 10
the People at TOpeka About
Past, Present and Future OF
Kansas and the Southwest.

TOPEKA. KAN, September 15.-Mr.
Blaine spoke without notes. His
speech consisted Of a rapid review Of
the history Of Kansas; Of the aehiev
ments OF the State; OF its extraordinary
development Gifts still more extraor.
dinsry future. In the twenty-one
years Of the States existence, follow
ing its stormy and bloody experience
as a Territory. it had grown to be a
Commonwealth of a million of people,
with a product this year of perhaps
$l5O, OOO, 0OO. Accustomed as we have
been for q century to the marvels
OF the growth of America, the de
velOpment of Kansas seems to us a
mystery and almost a miracle, and ap.
parently the growth has only begun.
When kansas shall have 100000 of
people Its power to export will be more
than hive times as great as tits to day.
Of your 52,0O0,000 of acreage not more
than one out Of eight has been cut with
a pillow, and the greater portion of you
vast acreage is such that lit need
only to be tiekled with a hoe to laugh
a crop" and that which will not laugh
the crop Of cereals, will perhaps, pro
dute a richer result ja the production
OF beef and wool. Your growth in
wealth is, therefore, remarkable. In
the valuation table, by which 70 }
agree to apportion your taxes, you es
innate yourselves to be worth less
than 500, 1000 900, scarcely more than
your annual product, reckoned upon
any fair basis. With due relation be.
tween the principal and income main
tanned, Kansas can not to- ny be
eckoned as worth less than 1000.
100000, and yet twenty eight years ago
she was Of no more value 10
civilization than the plains Of Tartary.
There are present here to-day large
numbers Of men who have seen this
entire growth and who have largely
and h~onorably contributed to it. Dur.
ing the very same period, during even
the twenty Que years of Kansas exist.
ence as a State, the growth Of the
whole country has been extraordinary
indeed. Within those twenty-o n
years the people of the United States
have acquired twice as much property
and wealth as had beea acquired on
the North American continent from
the discovery of Columbus down to
the day when Abraham Lincoln was
elected President. A great change
awaits on the trade and commerce of
Kansas. To day you look for your
markets and your exchanges to the
East. The day will come, and may
not be far distant, whed you will loon
to the West. | can myself remember
ttat honest old Governor Ritner, Of
Pennsylvania, astonished his hearers
BY predicting the day when the valleys
OF pennsylvania would be UNEQUAL to
produce the breadstugs and provisions
required by coal aud iron workers in
the mountains, then considered in a
large part worthless and bare. That
prediction has long since become the
aistory OF Pennsylvania; and with
these grand chains of mountains to
the west, with their gold and their
and iron and their lead and
endless abundance Of coal, for the de.
velopment of which all the productive
c pacities of these great prairie1 Of
Kansas will be taxed beyond their
capacity to furnish the necessities OF
liz to the millions of miners that will
be employed in bringing to light the
hidden wealth Of Colorado and New
Mexico. The civilization that Cortez
LETT in Mexico fiey years before a
white mans foot touched Plymouth
Rock, aud a century before William
Penn sailed the Delaware, meets you
to the Southwest, aud rises from tba
distant past to give a name to your
great mileage Of railways which in
turn unite, the people and brings
them into closer commercial alliance
with the descendants of the Spanist
cavalier at Santa Fe, and .be offspriog
the New England purdans on the
of Kansas
Mr.. Blaine spoke at length Of the
veterans Of the war who formed a
great part Of the vast audience.