Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-06-27

MANUFACTURES
The Key Note to the Future Growth o.
WICHITA.

Wichita.
To TIE Editor eff the Eagle:
Your article in Sunday mornings EAGLE
upon the subject of Manufactures for, W ich-
ita, is timely. 1t must be the key note 10
any future growth We have a right to ex-
pect. Without them our development
must soon run its course; and TO cease
growing is TO begin to go backward.
A city Of Il, 600 nhabitants-three-fou
OF whom are industriou and hard working
people offers in itself q good field in
which to locate manufacturing enterprise,
the success of which demands abundance
of cheap but intelligent labor. You might
travel thousand miles and not find city
Of equal population having SO large pro-
portion of laboring people AS Wichita. Add
to this the cSeapness OF all the staple and
substantial articles of food used by the Ia
boring classes-meat, flour, meal, potatoes
to which may soon be added vegetables
and fruits of all kinds, and we have an adj
vantage that will outweigh those possessed
by many of the successful man
ufacturing communities OF the east-even
in the manufacture OF the finer fabrics,
where freights cut no figure. In the work
ing up of raw material that we find at our
very doors, much Of 1t going to waste, the
rest to be had at nominal price, the adj
yantages are incalculable.
when the south proposed TO work up its
own cotton into the coarse Oznsburgs and
other fabrics that clothe its millions Of field
laborers, New England spinners laughed
at the idea. and predicted bank
ruptcy TO every firm that undertook it.
They predicted that the freight on q bale OF
cotton from Georgia to Boston was but %.
This bale of cotton would make 81 900
worth OF oznaburgs, which could be ship
PED back for s. more. With their water
power, cheap labor, cheap money and Yam
kee shrewdness they could undersell any es-
Enlistment that might be started in the
south. But the cotton mills of Atlanta to-
day are paying better dividends than those
OF Fall River, and the pro-
duets of the mills OF wesson, Wisconsin,
are being sold by the merchants of WITCH
ita. IL this is true, why may We not argue
that Kansas wool, which is to-day going
begging upon our streets at from II to 10
cents per pound, may be manufactured
here Mt a profit especially into the coarse
and staple fabrics 30 largely consumed
here in the west-blankets, carpets, coarse
eassameres for farmers and laborers wear,
for the women, etc, etc. (!
There is no better soil or climate in
America for the culture Of fax.
Does any one doubt that IL We had lin
seed oil mill, and an establishment for
working up the straw, they would find all
the material they could handle and at re-
rates, Nor is it necessary TO
depend for power entirely upon steam
made with S2.50 coal. There are several
valuable undeveloped water powers near
by. The same wster that now furnishes
power to grind i5o barrels Of -four every |
twenty-four hours at the Hydraulic mills, |
and gees wasting on TO the river, could be |
utilized at the site selected by
Mr.. Bradshaw, only few rods from |
the Santa Fe railroad track |
put short distance southeast of town, SO
rs TO make a power equally strong. Anoth-
sr mill as good could be located where the |
same track crosses Chisholm creek one and
,ne-half miles north Of town. Still others
IRE available. A little enterprise, capital
md pluck are all that is requisite 10 make
his manufacturing center, and as con-
sequence to enable Wichita to hold, through
III coming time, her supremacy as the en-
lire city OF the southwest.
II. W. LEWIS.