Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-09-11
THE SITUATION.
Kansas City Begins to Squirm,
The Inevitable Result of Her
Present Agitation.
What Has Been Done Cannot be I'm
done and No Power Can Prevent
Wichita Becoming Great City.

All the great enterprises and commercial
achievements Of civilization have their in
spiration in the faith of humanity. No
money nor labor is ever expended in build
| ing up city in the absence of faith in is
future. Where faith amounts to conviction,
in the absence of disaster, success is inevita-
bic. The faith of our people that Wichita
is bound to make great city is not formed
of a hope but comes of conviction based
on manifest facts. Not one business man in
thousand who visits Wichita but at once
comedies that the future Of Wichita will be
proud and a great one. The town itself,
its location, the character of its business
men, its magnificent environments, all
backed by an agricultural domain of womb
erful fertility of many counties in extent,
which in turn are supporting hundred or
more growing towns, and all taken together
convinces the most casual observer at once.
The Times of Wednesday morning COM
plains that Kansas City has not kept up
with the drift of public sentiment in Kan
sas, which is being expressed in the form of
railroad building in the interest of compel
tive points. That paper then names nine
teen counties with population of half
million, which counties are no longer de-
pendent upon Kansas City. The EAGLE
adds that for the most part these counties
never will be dependent upon Kansas City.
The Times then goes on to say:
New railroads are sprlnging up every
where in southern Kansas. Our only con-
nections with them are the Fort Scott, the
Southern Kansas and the Santa Fe. These
roads are all friendly to Kansas City, no
doubt, but the Fort Scott is in extreme east
ern Kansas, and the Southern Kansas and
Santa Fe are SO circuitous that the new
country being opened up is almost as near
to ST. Louis as to Kansas City. Our bust
ness men would be surprised if they knew
the extent of the inroads st. Louis has made
on this rich territory. For example, through
Pullman cars are running from st. Louis TO
Anthony, in Harper county. st. Louis is
gobbling the bulk of the business on the
line of the st. Louis, Fort Scott s. Wichita.
That company has already projected an ex-
tension from Wichita to the western border
of Kansas, along with the south shore of
the Arkansas river, paralleling the Santa Fe.
Is Kansas City, whose en-
terprise in the early stages ofgrowth enabled
her to outstrip her more powerful rivals, to
stand still now and see her business stolen
away? Are we to console ourselves with the
thought that some ofthese days Mr.. Gould
will build into Kansas City anyway
All this is naturally Kansas City's
territory. At least so per cent of its bust
ness ought to be done in Kansas City. But
as the matter now stands, from Junction
City to Oswego,a and from Anthony to Paola,
We are completely at the mercy of St. Louis
competition.
Railroads are the foundations for business
of any city and that city building the foun-
dations the deepest and broadest and earliest
will have the surest title to commercial
supremacy. Surely Kansas City will not be
backward in matter of such vital impor-
tsnce. The longer Kansas City the more
thoroughly will the trade be weaned from her
Kansas City must join with the people of
Kansas in building railroads, not only in the
case of the Paola branch, which is an urgent
necessity that cannot be put off at all, but in
all the territory in which our interests and
our trade are threatened. The competition
of st. Louis and local jobhing points must |
be met with prompt, decisive action. Kan
sas City must make fast lis own territory in |
an embrace of steel and then reach out for |
more. If any city is TO suffer from encroach- |
ments LET 1t be one Of our rivals.
That all this territory is naturally tribu-
tary to Kansas City is q strained presump-
ton and one which we deny. If Wichita
can furnish the prosperous territory lying
between this point and the Colorado line
with goods at Missouri river prices, and
freights at Missouri river rates, then Wich-
ita will inevitably do the business. Kansas
ity, nor all her influences, combined can
o rec this territory to remain tributary to
that point.
The situation may be trutbfully summed
up as follows: Central and southwestern
Kansas has suddenly-and Unexpectedly to
The people of KansasC ity-developed in pop
nlation and wealth far beyond the calculation
Of nearly every one. This development for
he most part has occurred in a country as
far west of Kansas City as Kansas City is
west of st. Louis. The trunk lines pooling
1t Kansas City have been resting in the be-
ief that in any event all the products Of
his territory would be compelled to seek
Kansas City. In the mean time the people
who have developed and built up this valley
md contiguous territory have been encour-
lging independent trunk lines to push out
or their surplus tonnage. This has been
lone and cannot be undone. Now, the
'nly way for Kansas City's pooling lines
o get their portion of traffic which will
Don be greater than that afforded by the
ntire state of Missouri, is TO pull out for
his territory independently for themselves.
This action will be the death knell of Kan
as City SO far as her ambitions to become
Chicago are concerned. And the more
Ter papers stir the matter up and the
ftener that her board of trade visits Gould,
t al, the sooner will the inevitable come,
ecause the sooner will the managers of the
criminal lines ct Kansas City see and under
tand the situation.
The EAGLE calls the attention of Kansas
)i;y to Minneapolis and st. Paul, their
rowth, importance and agricultural sur
oundings, and then to Wichita. Kansas
lily is good town and will continue to be
good town. Wichita will be just as good,
lst as great in every particular within ten
ears; but Wichita will be rather Mime
polls, and Minneapolis is bigger town
han Kansas City.
AS A COMMERCIAL CENTER.
The commercial centers Of Kansas, like
Wichita and Fort Scott, are becoming