Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-05-23
WICHITA AND KANSAS CITY.
A Business Talk About a Matter of
business
Wichiia's Wonderfully Winning Works
and Wsys.


Wichita is becoming just as much of 4
thorn in Kansas City's side as Kansas Cit,
has been a thorn in the caved-in ribs of old
St Louis. The law governing the avenue!
OF commerce and the centers of trade take
M heed Of many things which man is apt
to consider prerequisites TO commercial pre-
erninence, These but lily understood forces
which We call laws OF trade, will build q
city among the prccipiious bluffs al kaw's
mouth, or on the low malarial swanps upon
which Chicago was founded with the same
unerring aim and facility under which the
same laws are laying the foundations of a
great city in the midst of the vast but fertile
plain which surrounds Wichita. The Kan
sas City papers know this, and have good
word for every town in Kansas save Wich-
tia. Except in the associate dispatches the
name Of the biggest trade center between
the Missouri river and the base of the Ro cl,y
mountains, never appears in the enterpris-
ing journals Of a town that Kansas made,
and a town which need fear no rivals unless
It be Wichita Of this we DO not complain,
IN the least. OF course il means something,
and that something is not det-
riment 10 Wichita. 1t Is but q recog-
milton Of the growing shadow which
falls from q Young giant across her western
line Of trade. That shadow involves a d.
vision Of Kansas City's cattle shipments,
pork packing, grain storage and the supply
ing trade Of Il young but wonderfully rich
empire which the interests Of Kansas City
had fondiy hoped to control for all time.
There are hundreds of men in Wichita,
thousands Of men in southwest Kansas, and
tens Of thguzands Of bright men scattered
throughout the state who as yet have failed
10 comprehend the fact that the cosmopoli-
tic goddess stands with her index finger
pointing to the confluence of the Great and
Little Arkansas rivers from which she radi-
ates, daily, Rev arteries Of trade, in all di-
rections. The far-seeing men Of Kansas
City who have learned from their own ex-
perience and environment Is how to look in
diligently, apprchend and understand the
coming Importance Of Wichitas immediate
future more thoroughly than many who
have trod our level streets hourly from the
day the Indian struck his teepes on the
banks of the river up to to the setting Of
last evenings sun.
If the EAGLE this morning should give "A
list Of the enterprises now contemplated for
this city-and we do not claim TO know
them all-in the lines that pertain strictly
TO great commercial cities only, no: one
reader in ten outside of the executive COM
mittee of the board Of trade and the bank
ers, in this city; and not one reader in a hun
dred outside Of the city, would believe us.
But that fact does not preclude some in our
midst from making fortunes with the turn
of each year in real estate, nor prominent
jobbers, importers, and packers of meats and
fruits Of many points of IL United States,
nor the Standard oil Company, who have
already secured site for their oooperage
houses and tanks, from seeing and under
standing what is coming.
There Is another blindness which we have
thought a; times inexcusablc upon the part
of many OF our people, aud that is with ref
erence TO the location or site of Wichita as
to health. As We intimated in the outstart
the answering forces or laws OF commerce,
which partake Of the nature Of destiny in
that the conformation Of the surrounding
country enters into the factor, this law
takes no account Of the site Of commercial
center, impenc:raUle swamps and prccipi |
tous hills being equally acceptable. Notwith- |
this well known fact there are
those who have urged the 1atncss of Wich-
ita as AN objection and that it might in time |
become sicbly. Had we no vital statistics
10 the contrary common sense and observa- |
sion While Wichita, relatively speaking,
Is situated On Il broad, low, level valley. she |
is not SO in fact. The site of Wichita Is an /
inclined plane pitching eight feet TO the |
mile, and Il plane which at this identical site
IS thirteen hundred and ten feet above tide
water, which Is SIX hundred Feet higher than
Kansas City, thousand feet higher than
ST. Lots. and several hundred feet higher
han Topeka n- auy Of the towns in the
eastern portion Of the state. SO Wichita, AS
10 attitude. is not iow. Along down this in
ciTed plane, PUSHES the waters of the Ar
1nnsas river, and through four hundred miles
Of pure, clean sands, comes from the SHOWS
Of the Rocky mountains our drinking water
supply. Undoubtedly, with proper care,
md good sense rs 10 local government
Wichita wi!l continue TO oc as she is to-day
one of the healthest cities on the continent,
however great or dense her population may
become. But in the absence of those known
truths touching our healthfulness, the rec
,rds kept by our city for the past three
years show only seven TO nine deaths TO
he thousand, more favorable record than
my of which we have any knowledge.
Wichita is to become city of great com
nereial and manufacturing Importance and
Ter future development will more than
quail the rapid strides of her past brief his
ory. She is the inevitable centre Of one of
he prcudest and richest agricultural do
mains TO be found on the face Of the globe,
mi surrounded by over a hundred busy
md growing towns every one Of which
viii but directly contribute 10 her
.rowth and prosperity. Railroads
or the present may find it 10 their interest
o cripple and deiract by endcayoring to
IIvide up and scatter the trade of this vast
erritory TO the end that they, the roads,
nay not be all forced 10 compete at Wich-
"a; but, the day for the successful carrying
nut of that scheme is past. The railroads
lave resolutely shut their eyes TO Wichits's
oming Importance with proof positive that
Ter importance oyershadows that of all
ther towns continually before their eyes.
The Santa Fe management knows that for
welve years no point along the entire main
inc or branches has given them SO much
BUSINESS as Wichita, for their books show II;
he 81. Louis X san Francisco mas found
Wichita the most important town on their
inc for freigh;s and passengers west Of II.